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HUMAN SURVIVAL 
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The Rev. CHARLES DRAYTON ‘THOMAS 


WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 


SIR WILLIAM F. BARRETT, F.R.S. 


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AUTHOR’S NOTE 


My thanks are due to many who have rendered 
assistance in matters connected with this book. 
Especially to Lady Glenconner for her permission 
to include the incidents recorded in Chapter XII. 
And to Sir William Barrett, not only for his 
advice, and his guidance in the arrangement of 
material, but also for his kindness in writing the 
Introduction, 


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CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION BY SIR WILLIAM F. BARRETT, F.R.S. 


CHAP. 


VI. 


VII: 


Vill. 


IX. 


PART I 


Book ‘TEsTs 
PAGE 
AIM AND METHOD 3 


BOOK TESTS DESCRIBED 12 
BOOK TESTS WITH PERSONAL REFERENCES 19 
FURTHER EXAMPLES OF BOOK TESTS 30 


HOW FAR MAY CHANCE COINCIDENCE 
ACCOUNT FOR THE FACTS? 42 


CAN COLLUSION EXPLAIN? EXPERIMENT 
WITH A SEALED BOOK 49 


EXPERIMENT WITH AN UNSEEN BOOKSHELF 58 


EXPERIMENT WITH AN UNOPENED PARCEL. 
EXPERIMENT WITH AN IRON BOX. NOTE 
ON THE ABOVE RESULTS 66 


CAN BOOK TESTS BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE 
MEDIUM’S SUPER-NORMAL POWERS? 175 


INDICATIONS OF IDENTITY go 
SUMMARY OF RESULTS 97 


A FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF BOOK TESTS 106 
vii 


CHAP. 
XIII. 


XIV. 


XV. 


XVI. 


XVII. 


XVIII. 


XIX. 


XX. 


XXI. 


XXII, 


Contents 


PAK Lat 


NEWSPAPER TESTS 


NEWSPAPER TESTS ILLUSTRATED 


EXAMINATION OF THE TEST MESSAGES 
FOR FEBRUARY I4TH, 1920 


CHANCE COINCIDENCE FAILS TO 
ACCOUNT FOR THE FACTS 


TESTS RECEIVED FOR OTHERS AND 
RELATING TO FACTS UNKNOWN TO 
THE SITTER 

TESTS GIVEN BEFORE THE TYPE IS IN 
POSITION 

EXAMPLES OF NEWSPAPER TESTS, IN- 
CLUDING SOME OF THE EARLIEST 
RECEIVED 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SUCCESSFUL TESTS 
AND NOTE UPON PSYCHOMETRY 


NEWSPAPER TESTS AS VIEWED FROM THE 
OTHER SIDE 


THE IDENTITY OF THE COMMUNICATOR 


CONCLUDING REMARKS UPON THE EVI- 
DENCE AFFORDED BY NEWSPAPER 
TESTS, AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE 


APPENDIX A. REFERENCES PAST AND PRESENT 
TO ALLIED PHENOMENA 


APPENDIX B. TESTS FROM THE TITLES OF BOOKS 


iets 


PAGE 


119 
131 


150 


La 


2.38 
246 


INTRODUCTION 


BY 


sin W. F, Barrett, F.R.S. 


In recent years readers have been inundated with 
books on psychical research, and survival after 
bodily death; but as the majority of these books 
have little, if any, evidential value, a fresh book on 
the subject is apt to be dismissed with scornful 
impatience. The present volume is of a very 
different character, and forms, in my opinion, one 
of the most important contributions yet made 
towards an experimental solution of the problem 
of survival after our life on earth. 

It is, of course, easy for the vociferous Sadducees 
of to-day to shrug their shoulders and assert, that, 
as no evidence can establish such an impossible 
belief, they decline to waste their time in listening 
to nonsense. ‘They waive the whole matter aside 
with a superior gesture, confidently asserting that 
what cannot be explained by fraud, delusion, or 
subconscious memory is simply due to the ‘ will 
to believe.’ But surely such agnostics might 
remember the ancient proverb : ‘ He that answereth 
a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and 
shame unto him.’? 


1 Proverbs xviii. 13. 
iX 


Introduction 


Let me therefore beg of them not to persist in the 
‘will to disbelieve’ until they have read the evidence 
here set forth. They will, I expect, find their 
ingenuity severely taxed in the attempt to explain 
away the present addition to the growing mass 
of experimental evidence on behalf of a spiritual 
body which survives the frame-work of the 
natural body. 

Even that hard-worked hypothesis of telepathy 
—though this discovery is not as yet accepted by 
official science—is now appealed to by some 
sceptics. ‘They forget the ferocious attacks made 
upon the present writer forty-five years ago, for 
bringing before the British Association the first 
evidence on behalf of telepathy; and for daring to 
ask that a Committee of scientific experts should 
be appointed to inquire into the possibility of the 
transmission of impressions and ideas from one 
mind to another, independently of any known 
sensory organ. 

In view of the telepathic hypothesis, it is inter- 
esting to record the fact, that, in 1876 the present 
writer urged that before we could arrive at any 
definite conclusion as to the origin of alleged 
spiritualistic messages, we must first ascertain how 
far they were explicable by some sranscendental 
perceptive power on the part of the psychic or 
medium—and hence it was necessary to ascertain 
in limine, whether such powers as thought trans- 
ference and clairvoyance really existed. I believe 
that every serious student of psychical research 
will agree that these super-normal faculties have 

x 





Introduction 


now been established, though additional evidence 
is necessary before they can be generally accepted 
by science, owing to their rare and fugitive nature. 
For a similar reason, and the difficulty of adequate 
explanation, certain physical phenomena, e.g. fire 
balls, are not generally accepted by science, and a 
century ago the existence of meteorites was denied. 

The great merit of the present volume lies in 
the fact that the author conclusively shows that 
any explanation based on telepathy or clairvoyance 
on the part of the medium, or other person on earth, 
or any subliminal knowledge possessed by the 
medium or sitter, fails to account for all the 
facts he has recorded with such patient care and 
examined with critical acumen. The hypothesis 
of intentional or unintentional fraud by the medium 
is obviously untenable; and there remains only, 
as a last resort, the possibility of inaccurate recol- 
lection and forced interpretation, and finally the 
long arm of chance coincidence. But these 
hypotheses Mr. Drayton Thomas has, I think, 
successfully disposed of; in the first place, by 
taking full notes at each sitting and sending dupli- 
cate copies to other persons the same day, and, in 
the second place, by examining numerous books 
and papers, other than those indicated by the 
unseen communicator, and proving that coincidence, 
though it may account (as it always does) for a 
few improbable events, fails to explain the great 
bulk of the evidence. 

This brings me to the nature of the evidence for 
survival adduced in this volume. It may be divided 

xi 


Introduction 


into two parts: (1) the so-called * dook zests,’ which 
had before occurred with other sitters, and have 
been fully and critically discussed by Mrs. Henry 
Sidgwick in Part 81 of the Proceedings of the Soctety 
for Psychical Research, and (2) the so-called * news- 
paper tests,’ which I believe Mr. Drayton Thomas 
was the first to receive, and of which he has been 
able to confirm the accuracy in very many cases. 
In the do0k tests the exact position of some book 
in the sitter’s or another person’s library is named, 
the page given, and certain words, it 1s asserted, will 
be found on that page applicable to the question 
asked, or appropriate to the unseen communicator. 
As these tests are generally found to be more or 
less correct, we must assume, if we reject the spirit 
hypothesis, some amazing super-normal faculty 
and knowledge possessed by the medium, who 
throughout was Mrs. Osborne Leonard. The 
very cautious conclusion which Mrs. Henry Sidg- 
wick arrives at regarding these book tests is that 
‘on the whole, I think, the evidence before us 
does constitute a reasonable prima facie case for 
belief ’—in telepathic clairvoyance, i.e. ‘the per- 
ception of external things not known to any one 
present, but known to some one somewhere.’! 
If this means some one on earth, it will be found 
that in many of Mr. Drayton ‘Thomas’s book tests 
the evidence goes considerably beyond this and 
involves a wider scope. However, to those who 
are willing to admit a new and vast extension of 
human faculty, and unwilling to admit the survival 


+ Proc. S.P.R., Part LXXXI., April, 1921, p. 377. 
X11 


Introduction 


and agency of disembodied friends, this may seem 
a probable explanation. In any case we know 
nothing of the modus operandi either of telepathy 
or clairvoyance. Both may be due to a trans-cor- 
poreal action of the soul, in which I for one believe; 
but if there be an excursive power possessed by 
the soul, if it can perceive and function indepen- 
dently of the brain, the implication follows that 
it is likely to survive the dissolution of body and 
brain. 

In some of these book tests, however, information 
is given which appears inexplicable except on the 
assumption that it was derived from the memory 
of the unseen or deceased communicator. Take, for 
example, some of the remarkable book tests given 
through Mr. Drayton Thomas to Lady Glenconner, 
and purporting to come from her gallant and 
brilliant son, Edward Wyndham Tennant, who 
was killed in the war. Moreover, one of the 
most significant facts in the book tests, which 
purported to come from Mr. Drayton ‘Thomas’s 
father, who was also a Wesleyan minister, is that 
recorded by the author in Chapter X, p. g1. 
Out of 209 references to different books, no less 
than 110 were to religious works, and only two 
tests were from the numerous scientific volumes in 
Mr. Drayton Thomas’s library: the father had 
very slight interest in science, but deep interest 1n 
and knowledge of theological literature. More 
striking still is the fact, that, from the four volumes 
of a religious work, well known to the last genera- 
tion, and that had belonged to and doubtless been 

Xill 


Tutroduction 


carefully read by his father, fifteen tests were 
selected, thirteen from one volume alone. Mr, 
Drayton Thomas has an extensive library, and 
from seven shelves of books he specially values and 
frequently refers to, not a single test has been 
taken. These books are on subjects which would 
not have appealed to his father when on earth. 

Now these facts are of great value as affording 
a clue to the origin of these tests. It is not the 
sitter’s or the medium’s conscious or subconscious 
mind or memory that is concerned; it indicates the 
mind or memory of the unseen person who purports 
to be the communicator. Furthermore, it helps us 
to glimpse the process at work in that mind; 
familiar books are recalled, passages in those 
books are more easily found than in strange, 
unread books, and in some way a page is found 
in one of those books and a sentence discerned 
that conveys the requisite idea. It is useless in 
our present state of ignorance speculating how 
all this is done; or why, as it seems to us, a much 
simpler and more direct mode of giving information 
is not resorted to. Two thousand years ago the 
jumping up and down of bits of straw beneath a 
piece of rubbed amber seemed ridiculous, but it 
was the first revelation of the wonderful and still 
mysterious power of electricity. 

Here let me give an illustration of a book test 
that was given to me in a sitting with Mrs, 
Leonard on August 5th, 1921. During her trance 
Mr, Fred Myers purported to speak to me, 
through the control Feda, and gave a ‘book 

XiV 


Introduction 


test.’ He said that there were some books on 
the right-hand side of a room upstairs in our 
house in Devonshire Place, which it is important 
to note Mrs. Leonard has never visited. This 
statement was quite correct, a bookcase filled with 
books is on the right-hand side of the drawing- 
room upstairs. The control continued that, on 
the second shelf, four feet from the ground, in 
the fourth book counting from the left, at the top 
of page 78, are some words which he (Mr. Fred 
Myers) wishes you to take as a direct answer from 
himself to so much of the work you have been 
doing since he passed over. Asked if the name of 
the book could be given, the reply was ‘ No,’ but 
that whilst feeling on the cover of the book he got 
a sense of ‘ progression.’ The control continued: 
‘Two or three books from this test book are one 
or two books on matters in which Sir William used 
to be very interested, but of late years has not been 
so interested. It is connected with studies of his 
youth; and he will have particular memories of 
it, as it will remind him of his younger days.’ | 
had no idea what books were referred to, but on 
returning home found that, in the exact position 
indicated, the ‘test book’ was George Eliot’s 
Middlemarch. ‘The cover of the book showed the 
name conspicuously, the latter half, ‘ march,’ 
indicating as the control said, ‘ progression.’ On 
the first line at the top of page 78 are the words, 
‘ Ay, ay, I remember—you'll see I’ve remembered 
’em all,’ which quotation is singularly appropriate, 
as much of my work since Mr. Myers passed over 
XV 


Introduction 


has been concerned with the question of survival 
after death and whether the memories of friends 
on earth continued with the discarnate. 

But the most remarkable part of this book test 
is contained in the sentence, ‘two or three books 
from the book test,’ etc. In dusting these book- 
shelves the maid-servant, unknown to us, had 
replaced two of George Eliot’s novels by two 
volumes of Dr. Tyndall’s books, viz., his Heat 
and Sound, which, to my surprise, were found 
exactly in the position indicated. In my youth I 
was for some years assistant to Professor Tyndall, 
and those books were written whilst I was with 
him, and the investigations and experiments they 
describe formed ‘the studies of my youth.’ A 
careful investigation of all the other shelves and 
books yielded nothing even remotely applicable 
to the test given. Chance coincidence, therefore, 
cannot account for this, nor can travelling clair- 
voyance explain the matter, as Mrs. Leonard knows 
nothing of our house, nor of my early life, with 
which Mr. Myers was familiar. 

We now come to the zewspaper tests. Here we 
meet with a rare and unexpected phase of psychic 
faculty. Not only is travelling and telepathic 
clairvoyance displayed, but in many cases actual 
prevision. ‘The tests refer to certain words that 
will be found in a given column of the front page 
of the Times or Daily Telegraph the next day. The 
sitting usually lasted from 3 to 5 p.m., and as it 
seemed doubtful if any part of the next day’s 
paper would then be in type, I communicated 

xvi 


Introduction 


with the 7zmes publisher as to this, sending him 
the hour and details of a test given a few months 
before. The Times manager most kindly took up 
the matter, and the correspondence reveals that 
collusion was impossible, and that it was doubtful 
if some of the words selected were even in type at 
the time of the sitting with Mrs. Leonard. The 
particulars of this case and the correspondence 
with the Times will be found on pages 158-59, 
168-70. ‘The important feature of these newspaper 
tests is that the information conveyed, though pos- 
sessed by the discarnate personality, was in many 
cases utterly unknown to the sitter or the medium. 

I will give an illustration of a newspaper test 
from my own experience. In the sitting with Mrs, 
Leonard on August 5th, 1921, already referred to, 
I was told that in the Tzmes of the next day, half- 
way down the second column, would be found the 
name of a friend of mine, now passed over, whom 
I knew a few years ago; ‘a friend Sir William 
knew very well and liked greatly, whose books he 
has, and of whom he was thinking quite lately.’ 
The next morning, on opening the Times, exactly 
half-way down the second column, in large type, 
was the name Drummonp, MHenry Drummond, 
whose books are widely known and are in my 
library, was an old and beloved friend of mine, 
Shortly before going to this sitting on August 5th, 
I noticed he had written his name on his birthday, 
August 17th, in my copy of George Macdonald’s 
Diary of an Old Soul, so that I was thinking of 
him lately. 

E.H.S. XV1l B 


Tutroduction 


Feda continued, ‘There is another name in the 
first page of the Times to-morrow; a quarter of the 
way down the second column is the name Taylor ; 
this will remind Sir William of some one he knew 
in connection with studies he made some years 
ago, some one older than himself.’ In the next 
morning’s Times, a quarter of the way down the 
first (not the second) column, was the name 
TayLor in capital letters. Colonel Taylor was 
a friend, older than myself, who was on the 
Council of the S.P.R. and well known both to 
Mr. Myers and myself. As he lived in Chelten- 
ham, he kindly wrote me a full report of some © 
interesting experiments in dowsing which he 
conducted at Cheltenham, and which will be 
found on page 187 of my second report ‘On the 
so-called Divining Rod,’ published in 1900.1 The 
interesting point here is that the actual name, 
Taylor, was given by the control ; its exact position 
in the Zzmes was indicated, only in the first and 
not the second column of the first page. Here 
again chance coincidence affords no explanation, 
as a reference to other copies of the T7zmes clearly 
demonstrates. 

Hitherto there has been little evidence showing 
that a discarnate personality can exercise prevision, 
or can find an appropriate pdssage on a certain 
page in a particular book in a distant library. 
And if these transcendental powers are possessed 
by the discarnate, why should they resort to such 
cryptic methods, such fragmentary hints, such 


1See Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. XV. 
XVul 





Introduction 


shreds and patches of memory. The natural result 
of this is to make one irritated that they do 
not contrive some better and simpler means of 
revealing themselves, their present condition and 
mode of life, etc. Surely possessing such faculties 
and intelligence as these tests indicate, they 
might do more than give us puzzles to solve and 
mosaics to piece together. 

But it is of no use worrying over these anomalies, 
we know little of the difficulties of communication, 
and of translating the thoughts and ideas of the 
discarnate into the symbols of human _ speech. 
Imagine the difficulty of explaining any scientific 
theory or abstruse phenomena to an ignorant though 
intelligent person, or to one whose language we do 
not understand, or conveying our ideas to a deaf 
and blind friend. If such a friend believed we had 
died, all our efforts would be directed to convince 
him that he was mistaken, and that we were 
really his old friend alive and well. Now this 
attempt to prove identity—that those whom we 
think dead are really alive and well, seems 
to be the paramount object of these unseen 
communicators.! 

Psychical researchers are well aware of the 
many plausible explanations that might be given 
to evade the conclusion that messages purporting 


1 The late Dr. Hyslop, whose experience of American mediumistic 
phenomena was so wide and searching, arrived at the conclusion 
that the usual mode of conveying information by the discarnate 
was by impressing on the medium’s mind a picture of the scene or 
of the ideas to be transmitted, the pictographic method Hyslop 
called it. Certainly there appears great difficulty in conveying actual 
words, and the roundabout ways seen in these tests may be the 
effort to surmount this difficulty. 


X1X 


Introduction 


to be from deceased friends are really what they 
profess to be. It is only since the passing over of 
our friends Gurney, Myers, Sidgwick, etc., who 
often discussed this matter, that new types of 
evidence have been presented to us. More than 
ten years ago I wrote: ‘ It is a significant fact that 
evidence of this kind (é.e. inexplicable by any 
subliminal knowledge of the sitter or of the medium, 
or telepathy from the living), the desirability of 
which had been pointed out by Frederic Myers in 
his earthly life, has begun to appear since his 
passing over, and not only so, but the initiation of 
it apparently came from him.” The first attempt 
at a new type of evidence was the so-called cross 
correspondences, which seemed devised to exclude the 
plausible objections referred to above; nevertheless, 
in spite of this new evidence, on the next page of 
my book on Psychical Research, | wrote : ‘ Conclusive 
proof of the fact (of survival after death) in any 
given instance, is made almost impossible, for the 
present at least, when our ignorance can set no 
limit to the scope of telepathic powers.’ This 
objection seems to have been met by the next type 
of evidence given to us, after the passing over of 
that eminent Greek scholar and keen psychical 
researcher, Prof. A. W. Verrall. The intricate 
Greek mosaic and literary puzzle called the Ear 
of Dionysius affords, in the opinion of the Right 
Hon. Gerald Balfour, and other competent judges, 
one of the most striking evidences of survival yet 
obtained. It apparently demonstrated the combined 


1 Psychical Research, p. 229, Home University Library. 
XX 





Introduction 


and continued vigorous mental activity of two 
eminent classical scholars—the late Professors 
Verrall and Butcher. 

Whilst these two types of evidence afforded 
satisfaction to the painstaking student and classical 
scholar, they were beyond the grasp of, or too intri- 
cate to appeal to, the wayfaring man. Hence our 
friends in the unseen appear to have devised the 
new and simpler types of evidence seen in these 
book and newspaper tests. These obviously depend 
upon extraordinary faculties, the possession of which 
was not previously ascribed to the discarnate, and 
may indeed be exceptional among them and 
attained only after a time and by strenuous 
effort. 

It is interesting to note in this connection, that in 
certain messages received by Mr. Drayton Thomas, 
the unseen communicator, who purports to be his 
father, states that he has been directed and helped 
by others in the unseen who are in a higher state 
of knowledge than he enjoys at present. Possibly 
this may refer to the eminent psychical researchers 
I have alluded to. 

Incidentally, one value of these researches 1s 
the training of the mind, both of the experimenter 
and the reader, in the search for sruzh. Confronted 
by the tremendous issues of the problem, ‘If a 
man die shall he live again,’ the mind has to free 
itself from all prepossession and traditional beliefs, 
pursuing the quest in absolute honesty and sin- 
cerity, with the exercise of unlimited patience and 
courage. It seems strange that it should require 

xxi 


Introduction 


courage on the part of a clergyman to try and 
establish experimentally an affirmative answer to 
the above question. Yet, until quite recently, few 
clergy or other public men dare risk their reputa- 
tion by engaging in this quest. The more enlight- 
ened clergy are no longer opponents of psychical 
research; but this is not the case with the majority 
of the religious laity, more especially among 
Nonconformists. Hence Mr. Drayton Thomas is 
to be congratulated on the courage, as well as the 
zeal and scientific spirit, he has shown in con- 
ducting for some years past the investigations he 
has described in this volume. 

Sceptics too often forget that mere negations 
are of no value when confronted with the affirmative 
evidence of trustworthy witnesses. What a man 
denies 1s seldom worth attention, and adds nothing 
to our knowledge; but what any one affirms as a 
fact in his experience is always worth attention. 
As Professor William James once said,— If you 
wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you 
mustn’t seek to show that no crows are; it is enough 
if you prove one single crow to be white,’ and he 
adds—* My own white crow is Mrs Piper. In 
the trances of this medium I cannot resist the 
conviction that knowledge appears which she has 
never gained by the ordinary use of her eyes and 
ears and wits.’? 

Remarkable as are these book and newspaper 
tests, they do not afford any evidence of human 


1 Presidential Address S.P.R. January 31st, 1896. Proceedings 
of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. XII, p. 5. 


XXi1 





Introduction 


survival when taken alone without collateral evi- 
dence. They are evidence of the super-normal 
faculties of clairvoyance and precognition, some- 
times exhibited by certain persons in dream, or in 
hypnotic trance, and often in crystal vision during 
the sensitive’s normal waking state. How these 
faculties are exercised we do not know; but they 
do not, as already said, necessarily imply any 
discarnate agency, beyond a possible excursive 
action of the soul of the living sensitive. 

It is only when these tests are taken in conjunc- 
tion with the evidence they afford of knowledge 
not possessed by the entranced medium, but 
possessed by the deceased person who purports 
to communicate through the control, that we are 
justified in seeking their origin outside any super- 
normal faculties enjoyed by the medium. Even 
in that case we need to scrutinise the evidence 
critically, and to eliminate information that might 
possibly be derived telepathically from the sub- 
conscious content of the minds of those present. 
I do not attach so much importance to this 
hypothesis as others have done; but it will be seen 
that the author has discussed this question, and 
that the cumulative effect of the evidence he gives 
is strongly in favour of the survival of human 
personality after the dissolution of body and 
brain. 

To my sceptical friends may I in conclusion 
commend the following words of that able thinker, 
Dr. F. C. S. Schiller: ‘A mind unwilling to believe 
or even undesirous to be instructed, our weightiest 

XX) 


Introduction 


evidence must ever fail to impress. It will insist 
on taking that evidence in bits and rejecting item 
by item. As all the facts come singly, any one 
who dismisses them one by one is destroying the 
condition under which the conviction of new truth 
could ever arise in the mind.’ 


XXIV 


PART I 


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CHAPTER I 
AIM AND METHOD 


Tuis book sets forth one class of evidence among 
many pointing to the possibility of conversing with 
friends who have passed through death. It is 
written chiefly for the consideration of those who 
desire evidence. Yet others who, on grounds of 
religious belief, or of personal experience, are fully 
assured concerning the reality of future existence, 
may here find welcome supplementary proof. 

Uncertainty on this supreme question has an 
inevitable influence upon thought and character, an 
influence unwholesome and frequently mischievous. 

If any have closed their minds against the 
reception of evidence, they are scarcely likely to 
peruse these pages. Experience, whether in this 
life or the next, will, I believe, lead them to realise 
their mistake. 

I write for those who permit the windows of 
the mind to remain open; to such this book may 
reveal the light of a day that shall never end in 
night. 


Early in 1917 it became possible to undertake 
the systematic investigation of psychic phenomena 
to which I had looked forward during many years 
of reading. ‘To investigate personally is altogether 


3 


Aim and Method 


different from studying the opinions and experiences 
of others ; indeed I am increasingly persuaded that 
only by some amount of actual first-hand knowledge 
can any one rightly appraise the full significance of 
phenomena pointing to the survival of bodily 
death. 

Having no adequate psychic gifts of my own, 
it was necessary to seek the assistance of others, 
and for some months I studied with variously 
gifted persons the phenomena of clairvoyance, 
psychometric ability, trance, and the direct voice. 
From each I was able to learn much, but finally 
concluded that deep trance speaking was the method 
by which the investigation could be best pursued. 

Experiment with several persons who had de- 
veloped their ability for trance speaking decided 
me to arrange for a long series of studies with 
Mrs. Osborne Leonard, my results with her seeming 
to indicate possibilities of considerable improve- 
ment. For five years I have followed up this line 
of research, and have had over one hundred sittings 
in which she passes into the trance state and 
her mental and vocal organism is at the temporary 
disposal of ‘ Feda.’ Feda is the name given to 
Mrs. Leonard’s so-called ‘ control.’ 

There has been discussion in learned circles 
as to the real nature of a ‘control,’ and some 
tendency to regard it as an instance of ‘ secondary 
personality.” Looking at the considerable body of 
evidence which has accumulated during my re- 
searches, I see no logical alternative but to regard 
Feda as an intelligent and kindly woman, who, 


4 


Aim and Method 


from spirit life, devotes a part of her time to 
assisting, in the capacity of interpreter, intermediary, 
or messenger, those less practised than herself, 
who desire to make use of the medium’s trance 
condition for communicating with their friends on 
earth. 

It would be beside the purpose of this book to 
enter into a discussion of the evidence for Feda’s 
actuality as a person distinct from Mrs. Leonard. 
The facts to be related do not depend upon any 
particular interpretation of the part taken by Feda 
in the matter; and I shall therefore allude to her 
as if she were, what she asserts herself to be, a 
person who receives the ideas which one’s com- 
municator wishes to transmit, and who then succeeds 
in getting them voiced by the vocal organism of 
the medium. 

In view of prevalent misconception about the 
nature of a trance sitting, it may be well to describe 
in detail the procedure uniformly followed at my 
interviews with this medium. 

On arrival at the house I am greeted by either 
Mr. Leonard or his wife, and pass at once into the 
room where the sittings are held. Taking a seat 
I arrange note-book and papers before me on a 
table where stands a lighted lamp. The curtains 
of the room are drawn so as to exclude the greater 
part of the light, but there is always sufficient 
illumination from windows and lamp to make 
clearly visible everything within the room. Dark- 
ness would appear to be essential for the production 
of certain kinds of physical phenomena with which 

7 


Aim and Method 


we are not here in any way concerned; and this 
shading of the room is to facilitate an easy and 
rapid passing into the peculiar kind of sleep called 
trance. Mrs. Leonard takes her seat, back towards 
the light, at a distance of two or three feet from me. 
During trance there is a tendency for the body to 
lose warmth more rapidly than usual, and in cold 
weather there is a good fire some nine feet behind 
the medium. 

The accompanying sketch-plan makes clear the 
respective positions just described ; it relates to the 
room at present used, but, except for the position 
of the fireplace, would apply equally well to others. 

When we are both seated there is a period of 
silence lasting two or three minutes. During this 
time there is a change in the medium’s breathing 
and some of the usual indications of falling asleep. 
Then there commences a faint whispering of which 
I can sometimes catch fragments, such as: ‘ Yes 
aa wWwalte ei Wes, oiMrs Tohn, Wihedas tn leitem 
him, ye) Yes, Vall rightelc( 7/0) @ Maen. aimee 
clear voice and with much animation, Feda greets 
me and announces who are present, invariably one 
whom she calls Mr. John, and sometimes others. 
Feda’s voice and manner cannot for a moment 
be confused with Mrs. Leonard’s. Occasionally 
one may catch a fleeting reminder of the latter’s 
intonation, but nothing more. ‘The voice and 
vivacity suggest a particularly sprightly and men- 
tally alert girl of, say, eighteen years of age. I 
have made no attempt in recording conversations 
transmitted through her to reproduce the clipping 





Aim and Method 


of certain words and the frequent lapses from 
grammar which characterise Feda’s speech. Feda 
accounts for them by saying that when living on 
earth she was not English. 

For the first two years Feda simply interpreted, 
receiving what purported to be the conversation 
of my communicators and transmitting it sentence 
by sentence through the medium’s lips. At the 
end of that period I began to observe that for a 
short period in the sitting there was a change, the 
effect being exactly as if Feda had retired for the 
time and another had taken her place. "This was 
explained as an attempt on the part of a com- 
municator to speak to me direct without Feda’s 
mediation. At first these efforts were laboured, 
but with practice the apparent difficulties were 
overcome. 

It now regularly happens that, when Feda has 
been interpreting for an hour, she intimates that 
one or other of my friends wishes to take her place. 
She bids me farewell and silence supervenes. 
Shortly whisperings are heard, which change almost 
immediately into a clear voice, a voice entirely 
different from Feda’s and equally distinct from that 
of Mrs. Leonard. For the remainder of the sitting 
I am conversing freely with the communicator. 
He or she, as it may be (for two of them take 
turns), cannot reproduce the tones with which I 
was familiar during their life on earth, but they 
do unquestionably preserve their own individual 
characteristics ; each speaks 1n a voice and manner 
uniformly consistent, never showing any tendency 

7 


Aim and Method 


to gravitate towards that of the other, of Feda, 
or of the normal Mrs. Leonard. 

The duration of the sitting varies from an hour 
and three-quarters to two hours and a half, the 
difference in length depending in some way, I 
think, upon the mental and physical vigour of the 
medium and sitter for the time being. If one is 
weary in body or mind it seems to shorten the 
period during which something they term ‘the 
power’ will hold out. The diminishing of this 
‘power’ appears to make it difficult for the 
speakers to express themselves as they desire, and 
experience enables them to decide the precise 
moment beyond which it is not well to continue. 

Farewell having been said on both sides, there 
is silence for one or two minutes, after which Mrs. 
Leonard rises from the chair and, drawing back the 
curtains, appears to be entirely her normal self 
again, none the worse for the two hours’ sleep, but 
quite fresh and alert. 

Although not relevant to anything in this book, 
it may be of interest to add that during the whole 
of the sitting the medium’s eyes appear to be 
closed; yet, notwithstanding this, Feda, or whoever 
may be in control at the time, is able to ‘see’ me 
and the objects in the room. Of this there is 
sufficient evidence, but its significance need not 
detain us. 

For statements requiring great accuracy, as in 
giving certain kinds of tests, it is found advisable, 
in the opinion of my communicators, to remain 
unencumbered by the care involved in taking 

8 


Aim and Method 


personal control. The literary allusions about to 
be described were received by me from my chief 
communicator through Feda. 

I have used the term ‘my communicator,’ and 
it may be well here, at the outset, to explain what 
is in my mind when this word is used, as it must 
be very frequently, throughout the book. 

The complete story will be reserved for another 
place; the following is its outline. My father, 
the Rev. John D. Thomas, passed on in the year 
1903, and during the fourteen years which had 
elapsed between that and my first sitting I had 
lost by death several friends. Some of these, I 
imagined, would be more likely to respond to 
my attempted communication than my father, 
whose interest in the subject had never been 
pronounced. It was therefore with some surprise 
that, from the earliest sittings onward, I heard of 
his presence and discovered that he was able and 
wishful to communicate with me. Mrs. Leonard’s 
control always alludes to him as ‘Mr. John.’ 

His mind had always been logical, and these 
first communications dealt skilfully with evidences 
of his identity. He proved his identity. That 
proof I reserve for description on some other 
occasion; it is not required for my present purpose, 
which is merely to present a particular line of 
evidence given subsequently to the day when I 
stated to him my entire satisfaction with those 
proofs of identity which he had given. The reply 
on that occasion was characteristic of my father 
as I had known him in earthly life; it was to the 

E.H.S. 9 C 


Aim and Method 


effect that one could not have too much good 
evidence, and that since my object was not personal 
satisfaction, but the collection of information which 
might benefit others, he would continue to lay a 
strong and broad foundation of fact upon which 
to subsequently build. 

It was some weeks after this that there com- 
menced the book test series, which was later followed 
by newspaper tests; these two form the subject- 
matter of the present book. It 1s a line of evidence 
selected from among many, and convenient to treat 
in isolation from the others. Should the attempt 
to set forth my material in a lucid and compre- 
hensible way be successful, this book will form yet 
another contribution to the considerable accumu- 
lation of evidential matter, which, during recent 
years, has been gathered for the use of thoughtful 
minds—minds desirous of certainty as to human 
survival and the possibility of verbal communica- 
tion with departed friends. 

By stating my position thus early in the book, 
I am absolved from the necessity of adding quali- 
fying phrases when alluding to the communicator. 
I may be permitted to write exactly what I think 
and speak of him as ‘ my father,’ especially when, 
after some of the earlier chapters, good cause 
has been shown for my logical right so to do. 
Yet, in deference to the more fastidious readers, I 
shall restrain myself to some extent and retain 
the term ‘communicator’ in many places where 
‘father’ would be more in consonance with my 
habits of thought. 

10 


—— Ss 


ry 


Aim and Method 


Needless to say, reading and discussion have 
frequently brought me into touch with persons 
who assert that proof of any message having 
originated in the spirit world is, together with 
evidence for the identity of a supposed communi- 
cator, absolutely unattainable. Should any holding 
that opinion deign to read my book, I ask them to 
consider the possibility of their having been mis- 
taken, and would express the hope that they may 
find it within their power to trace the steps of the 
following argument with an open mind, honestly 
weighing the evidence adduced and considering 
whither it points. 


: Small 
Window / Fireplace \ Window 








Window 
0 
c 3 
Seated at Table (a = 
M®S Leonard ond Nofemakin - 
Seated wifh i se 
Back fo Fire 
Window 


It 


CHAP CE Rae 
BOOK TESTS DESCRIBED 


‘ During the last few years a special type of phenomenon 
has developed with Mrs. Leonard, known under the 
name of “ book tests,” the nature of which I will 
briefly indicate. An attempt is first made to identify 
a particular bookcase in the sitter’s house by mentioning 
its position in regard to other features of the room in 
which it stands—the door, for instance, or the windows ; 
sometimes other articles of furniture are described in 
some detail. In successful cases sitters are able to 
assert that they know of one bookcase only to which 
the description would apply. A shelf is next indicated 
—for instance, the second from the top—and a par- 
ticular book in the shelf, say, the fourth from the left. 
The number of a page in the book is then given and, 
usually, some indication as to the part of the page, 
“near the top,” “ about half-way down,” and so 
forth. The field having been thus narrowed down, 
some statement follows as to what the sitter may expect 
to find in the passage indicated.’ 

Regarding these book tests Sir Oliver Lodge 
says, ‘ The evident object is to send messages in such 
form that they shall be unintelligible, not only to the 


1Mrs. W. H. Salter, Hon. Editor to The Society for Psychical 
Research. See article in The Psychic Research Quarterly for January, 
Ig21, entitled, ‘ Two Noteworthy Book Tests.’ 


IZ 


I a ce art 


Book Tests Described 


medium of communication and to the person receiving 
them, but to everybody, until the clue is followed up 
and the message decoded, when the meaning ought to 
be unmistakable. If tests of this kind are successfully 
accomplished, tt is plain that no simple kind of mina- 
reading can be appealed to or regarded as a rational 
explanation.’ » 

Since the following pages contain numerous 
references to volumes in my study, it may be well 
at the outset to state that Mrs. Leonard has never 
entered our house, nor has she been afforded any 
opportunity whatsoever for ascertaining information 
about the contents of our book-shelves. 

My introduction to book tests was on June 
14th, 1917, when I was informed that a band of 
those on the other side had planned a long series 
of them, that they were designed for a definite 
purpose, and that they would be given to others 
also. I was asked to keep careful notes of mine, 
and this I have done. Examples in this book are 
transcribed from those notes and the subsequent 
verifications. The communicator purported to 
be my father. One of the preliminary statements 
is worthy of consideration in view of characteristics 
marking the earlier tests. He said, ‘I “ sensed ”’ 
the appropriate spirit of the passage rather than the 
letters composing it.’ But after eighteen months 
he appeared to acquire a power of occasionally 
seeing the words by some sort of clairvoyance. 
The gradual transition from ‘sensing’ to ‘ clair- 


1See Prefatory Note by Sir Oliver Lodge to Lady Glenconner’s 
book, The Earthen Vessel. Publisher, John Lane. 


13 


Book Tests Described 


voyance, with its successful culmination in 
‘newspaper tests’ giving exact names, is an 
interesting study. 

It has been objected that it is physically im- 
possible to obtain correct information from the 
pages of a closed book. Possibly so. But what 
if we are here dealing with powers no longer 
limited by physical conditions? The powers of 
a freed spirit may far transcend ours. We can 
but study the facts brought before our notice, 
endeavouring to deduce the laws governing their 
origin. 

How is it that the exact page can be correctly 
given? I was informed that this was one of the 
greatest difficulties, as the ‘sensing’ method did 
not enable a spirit operator to decipher the number 
printed on the page, and so calculation was neces- 
sary. he impression left on my mind by attempted 
explanations of the method used was that, when a 
page had been fixed upon as containing a thought 
suitable for the test, the operator counted the pages 
between that and the commencement, and that this 
counting was done by a process similar to that 
employed by us when we rapidly ‘skim’ a book. 
The operator usually starts where the flow of 
thought commences, and when it ceases and 
recommences higher up he concludes that he has 
passed from the bottom of one page to the top of 
another. In this way, they say, it is found practicable 
to compute the number of pages between the 
commencement and the passage fixed upon for 
the test. When verifying one usually counts from 


14 


Book Tests Described 


the commencement of the printed matter, dis- 
regarding fly-leaves and the printer’s numbering. 

The following examples illustrate the classes, 
personal and general, into which book tests may 
be divided. The first connects the test-passage 
with a happening in our home, the others are 
more general. 


I 


We had discussed the possibility of audible 
sound being produced by my communicator to 
attract our attention at home. He tried, but rarely 
succeeded in making knocks which might not 
be attributed to ordinary creakings in floor or 
furniture. One night, however, I concluded that 
a special effort had been made and that the result 
was a definite success; for thrice I heard a loud 
double knock. I noted the incident and added 
it to a list of such items kept for reference. Three 
days later, at an interview with Mrs. Leonard, Feda 
greeted me with the assertion that she had succeeded 
in coming to our house and giving taps there. 
Owing to the fact that she could not hear her own 
raps, she had to judge whether they were loud or 
otherwise, but considered that she had given both 
loud and soft, a loud rap being followed by slight 
taps intended to spell out her name by the usual 
alphabetical code. I told her that while clearly 
hearing the loud raps, I had not heard the 
softer ones. 


15 


Book Tests Described 


A few minutes later the following book test 
was given :— 


‘He thinks you will be amused by the 
following test. It is in a book behind your 
study door, the second shelf from the ground, 
and fifth book from the left end. Near the 
top of page 17 you will see words which serve 
to indicate what Feda was attempting to do 
when knocking in your room. Now that you are 
aware that it was Feda’s attempt you will 
see the unmistakable bearing of these words 
upon it.’ 


On returning home I found this book to be a 
volume of Shakespeare which commences with 
King Henry VI., and the third line from the top of 
the indicated page was number 69 of Scene 3 in 
Act I. It reads, ‘I will not answer thee with 
words, but blows.’ 

The following are examples of the more general 
type of book tests which have ranged variously 
over description, humour, topics of the day, 


philosophy, and religion. 


II 


“In your study close to the door, the lowest 
shelf, take the sixth book from the left, and 
page 149; three-quarters down is a ‘word 
conveying the meaning of falling back or 
stumbling.’ 


Rather more than half-way down this page was 
16 


Se ee ee ee 


a, ae 


Book Tests Described 


the following sentence: “, . . to whom a crucified 
Messiah was an insuperable stumbling-block.’ 

Directions for finding the required book and page 
will be usually omitted from this point onward, tt 
being understood that these were in every instance 
given with exact precision. 


II] 


“Very low on the page he seemed to get 
something about great noise, not a sharp, 
thin sound, but a heavy one, more of a roaring 
noise.’ 


Close to the bottom of this page was the 
sentence: ‘I chanced to come that time along 
the coast and heard the guns for two or three 
days and nights successively.’ 


IV 


The exact position of the book having been 
described, I was asked to turn to a given page 
and there see stated, hal/f-way down, an argument 
which I was likely to hear frequently from the lips 
of incredulous critics of spirit communications; 
and, also, immediately following that, a few words 
which might be very properly quoted as an answer 
to such adverse criticism. ‘ You would not,’ said 
he, ‘employ those words verbatim, yet should 
you do so they would be a correct reply.’ 

17 


Book Tests Described 
The dialogue found half-way down the page 


designated ran as follows:— 
Says No. 1—‘ I had an idea that I should meet 
you here. The thought came to me.’ 
No. 2 replies—‘ I expect that was transmission 
of thought.’ 
No. 1 answers— Yes, I know.’ | 
How appropriate is this. Critics of spirit 
communications say, ‘It is all telepathy, merely 
an instance of transmission of thought.’ And our 
reply is, ‘ Certainly that seems to be the method 
employed. But by whom? You say from earthly 
minds, we say it is from spirit friends. But it is 
obviously transmission of thought in either case.’ 


18 





CHAPTER III 
BOOK TESTS WITH PERSONAL REFERENCES 


TueE following exemplify the more personal type 
of book tests, a large class in which. the passage 
to be found is made to connect in some way with 
my work, our home life, or, occasionally, with the 
communicator. ‘These references to himself are 
of special interest as contributions toward the 
evidence of his identity. 

The question of personal identity is crucial, and 
will be dealt with more fully in chapters devoted 
to newspaper tests. The book tests were given, so 
it was claimed, not so much for proof of identity as 
illustrating the ability of a spirit to obtain information 
unknown to the sitter or the medium, and yet capable 
of easy verification. 

I shall refrain from giving many examples of 
personal book tests, because they cannot have for 
others anything of the intense interest and evidential 
value which they had when received by me. 


I 


Two lady visitors had joined us one evening at 
an experimental table sitting, and among the 
messages spelled out by means of tiltings by the 
table was one purporting to be given by Feda. 


19 


Book Tests with Personal References 


Both ladies were strongly mediumistic, and the 
table moved with much vigour. My theory in 
accounting for such movements was that, from the 
sitters, there emanated a semi-material force or sub- 
stance which was utilised by the communicating intelli- 
gences to impart motion to the table, causing it to tilt 
while we spelled out the alphabet, and stopping 
it at the letter they required. I further supposed 
that, at the close of such sittings, this semi-material 
force was reabsorbed into the bodies from whence tt 
had been drawn. Five days later, during a sitting 
with Mrs. Leonard, came the following :— 


‘In your study, behind the door, third shelf 
up, and third book from the right, look at 
the top part of page 62. You will there find 
a passage which will be quite striking if you 
take it as referring to your table sitting with 
two ladies recently, take it very literally and 
it will make a clear allusion.’ 


This is the passage commencing four lines from 
the top of that page: ‘ The divine hero, however, 
does not consent to suffer the substance which has 
emanated from him, and which ts part of himself, to 
perish. He seeks to disengage it by degrees, and 
to reabsorb it in himself.’ 1 have italicised the more 
specially relevant words. 


II 


Among the earlier book tests received in 1917 
the following was of particular interest as evidencing 
acquaintance with four facts which Mrs. Leonard 

20 


Book Tests with Personal References 


was not at all likely to know, viz.: my visit to a 
psychometrist three years before, the deafness of 
a near relation of my wife’s, the fact that we were 
thinking of leaving our house, and the name of 
my wife’s sister. The test commenced with a 
very accurate description of a little room where 
we had a hanging book-shelf. Not only was the 
whereabouts of the book required given very 
precisely, but I was asked to notice that on the 
back of the adjoining volume there was a word 
looking like ‘ A-sh-ill-ee.’ In saying this name 
Feda warned me that she was giving the sound, 
but not its correct spelling. I discovered on 
returning home that the book standing next was 
by Mrs. Ashley Carus-Wilson. A-sh-ill-ee is 
phonetically quite good for Ashley. 

Next I was told to turn to page 87 and less than 
half-way down to ‘ see something about “endeavour”’ 
again, but under different conditions and aspects 
from the last time.’ The previous test had been 
about spiritual endeavour, and this reference proved 
to be part of a story in which a lady tried in vain 
to make a very deaf woman understand her wishes, 
and continued to try unsuccessfully. 

Feda continued :— 


‘ There is a word commencing with “ M ” 
which has an important place in it and a 
bearing on the message, but this point is an 
aside and unimportant.’ 


The verb, ‘to make,’ is used several times— 
‘ make her understand.’ 
2I 


Book Tests with Personal References 


The test proceeded :— 


‘Do not take these tests too personally; 
it might not be complimentary. But your 
father says that he might make use of this 
one if writing to you in a fatherly way ; for 
it fits the conditions of your life three years 
back, also it will bring in something which 
connects with your wife.’ 


Now three years previously I had my first sitting 
with a psychometrist.!. I had offered my ring, and 
from it had been ‘sensed’ curious information 
which interested and puzzled me. ‘The psycho- 
metrist then proceeded to give what purported to 
be messages from the spirit world, but which I 
did not find easy to understand, nor was there any 
clue as to the person from whom they were supposed 
to emanate. Being more interested in the psycho- 
metry, I gave little attention to the messages. In 
the light of this test and other more recently 
acquired knowledge, I think that my father had 
endeavoured on that occasion (the first opportunity 
I had given him since his passing) to attract atten- 
tion to his willingness to communicate with me, 
but had failed to get his message intelligibly trans- 
mitted. It was true, if I am correct in this supposi- 
tion, that three years ago he ‘could not make 
me hear’ what he wished to say. 

But how did this incident about endeavour with 
a deaf person make connection with my wife? 
This was easy to understand; one of her near 


1See note on psychometry, Chapter XIX: 
22 


Book Tests with Personal References 


relations is deaf and some effort is necessary if he 
is to be made aware of what one is saying. At my 
next interview with Mrs. Leonard I asked if the 
above was what my communicator intended to 
imply by his book test? Feda replied, ‘ Yes,’ 
and then to my surprise added, ‘ but there is some- 
thing more which you have not noticed; it brings 
in some. one else, and there is a clue to it lower 
down the page.’ Searching the page again with 
this in mind, I found the clue in the words, ‘ It was 
a nice place, and he never wished to leave it,’ and 
on turning the leaf I found that the next chapter 
had for heading, ‘ Lilian gives her advice.’ This 
made things interesting; we had been thinking 
of leaving our house, and Lilian is the name of my 
wife’s sister, who had just previously arranged to 
accompany us in viewing a locality where we hoped 
to find another house, and to give us the benefit 
of her advice in its selection. 

When subsequently I congratulated my com- 
municator upon his intimate knowledge of our 
affairs, his comment was to the effect that they 
notice much more about their friends on earth 
than they used to do when living here. 


III 


From the same book as the above, a book which 
I had never read or even glanced at, was given a 
test which has an interesting bearing upon she 
identity of the communicator. Feda said:— 
23 


Book Tests with Personal References 


‘One of the opening scenes almost describes 
a place where you and he have lived together; 
it is near the start of a chapter and near the 
beginning of the book.’ 


On page seven was described the house of a 
doctor facing a village green: ‘The little green 
with its intersecting paths and seats was so quaintly 
peaceful; and across it on the opposite side were a 
few old houses, and the red-brick church and 
schools and the vicarage... . It was rather an 
old-world corner.’ 

My father and I had lived together in but one 
place boasting a green, and this was Toddington 
in Bedfordshire. ‘There lived a doctor in an old- 
looking house facing the green. There were paths 
round and across this green. It was quaintly 
peaceful, as we often remarked. Here and there 
around it were ancient houses. The church was 
at one corner (although not of red bricks), while 
school and vicarage were a little way beyond the 
green (though not facing it). Quite an ‘ old-world 
corner,’ and this description is the more remark- 
able as not a trace of it would apply to any other 
of the many places in which my father and I had 
lived together. 

At the sitting next following there was a further 
reference to this place, but taken from another 
book :— 


‘About a third down the page there is a 
description, contained in several lines, say four 
to six for the gist of it, of a place where you 


24 


Book Tests with Personal References 


and he were together. In that place your 
activities were merged into one, in a way that 
was not always possible when he was on earth; 
this refers to one of the times when this was 
possible. You will recognise it by certain 
circumstances attendant on the: time he 
speaks of, these are literally referred to 
here.’ 


The following items are extracted from the 
designated page, occurring more or less a third the 
way down as stated. “One walked as it were a 
little above the country ... wagons crawling 
over the country roads; one could hear their axles 
complaining a mile away, coming nearer . . . and 
the people, little clumps . . . turning aside to go 
to their own villages.’ 

All this is perfectly accurate of Toddington as 
we knew it in 1900-1. My father lived there with 
me for six months and volunteered to take a con- 
siderable share of my work, preaching in the villages, 
attending meetings and helping in visiting. Only 
once before had such a sharing of our work been 
possible, but at Toddington it was much more 
complete and for a longer period. The description 
in the above extracts is very characteristic of the 
neighbourhood. Many of our walks were on high 
ground with far-reaching views; in the still air of. 
the unfrequented locality carts could be heard, 
especially towards evening, grinding along the 
roads a mile or more away; there were one or two 
villages quite near and a certain amount of coming 
and going among the villagers. 

E.H.S. 25 D 


Book Tests with Personal References 


These two descriptions, so perfectly applicable to a 
place where my father and I had worked together, 
could only have been selected by one acquainted with our 
location and work in those six months of 1900-1; for 
at no other period of my life would there have been 
any relevancy thereto. 

The former book containing the reference to the 
village green was ohne which I had never read; the 
latter book I had read fifteen years previously, 
but retained no conscious recollection of the descrip- 
tion which proved to fit the Toddington neighbour- 
hood. It is not a case of collusion; for no one living 
in our house had ever been to Toddington or knew 
about its Green, while no one outside our house 
would be likely to know the position of these books 
upon our shelves, even had they divined the relevancy 
to Toddington of the two descriptions. It cannot 
be an instance of telepathy from my subconscious 
mind, since I had not read the book containing the 
description of the Green. Nor does it look like 
coincidence; for I have found no similar descrip- 
tions elsewhere, although such may very well exist; 
and the directions given for finding these were so 
definite as to warrant some other explanation. 

Grant that my father was communicating, and 
that he recollected the place and the circumstances 
of his work there, then all is explained save the 
method by which the selected passages are observed 
between the covers of closed books. 

In support of the opinion that it was actually 
my father himself who originated this test based 
upon memories which we held in common, I here 

20 





Book Tests with Personal References 


introduce a further reference to Toddington, given 
more than three years after the above. It was 
spoken by way of parenthesis in the midst of tests 
to be verified by reference to the Times of the 
following day. The name ‘ Fowler’ was suddenly 
introduced, and I was asked whether I remembered 
a man of that name whom my father had also 
known?’ I did, but was careful to give away 
no information beyond this mere assent, and 
the communication through Feda continued as 
follows :— | 


‘Do you remember a place ‘‘ D ” connected 
with him? Also a place ‘“‘M” in which he 
was interested in another way, something 
smaller like a street, house, or an address?’ 


Feda hurried on without waiting or expecting a 
reply; she has a habit of expressing things interro- 
gatively when not quite clear as to the communi- 
cator’s exact meaning, but never insists on replies. 


‘Mr. Fowler was a very useful man; your 
father found him useful and so did most of 
the people associated with him. He lived 
near a green place, a green square. Your 
father knew that green very well. Do you 
also remember a funny little building, which 
was not a church, nor a house, but with which 
Mr. Fowler was connected? It seems to Feda 
that this building is not high, and not quite 
by itself, but as if built at the side of another 
one. Mr, Fowler was rather particularly 
linked with the lesser building.’ 


27 


Book Tests with Personal References 


All this is perfectly intelligible, as may be shown 
by setting it out in sections with explanations 


appended. 


1. ‘Do you remember a place “ D”’ con- 
nected with him ?’ 


In addition to his place of business at Toddington 
Mr. Fowler had a branch establishment in the 
neighbouring town of Dunstable. 


2. ‘Also a place “‘M” in which he was 
interested in another way, something smaller 
like a street, house, or an address ?’ 


Being Circuit Steward at the time, Mr. Fowler 
was responsible for the upkeep of the Manse in 
which I lived. ‘M’ may very well stand for 
Manse; note the increasing accuracy of approach, 
‘something smaller (than a town)—street—house 
—address.’ A sufficient postal address would have 
been—The Manse, Toddington, Beds. 

Mr. Fowler’s interest in the Manse was certainly 
‘in another way’ from his interest in Dunstable, 
where his business lay. 


3. ‘Mr. Fowler was a very useful man; your 
father found him useful and so did most of 
the people associated with him.’ 


He was the most prominent official in connection 
with our Wesleyan Church while my father and 
I were working together at Toddington in the 

28 





Book Tests with Personal References 


winter of 1900. He rendered much service in 
various departments of Church work, was the one 
who welcomed us on arrival, and proved himself a 
good friend during the time of our residence. 


4. ‘He lived near a green place, a green 
square. Your father knew that green very 
well.’ 


This agrees with the green to which reference 
has been made in the foregoing test. Mr. Fowler 
lived scarcely a stone’s throw from this green, which 
occupies the centre of the place, and is more or 
less square in shape. 


s. “Do you also remember a funny little 
building, which was not a church, nor a house, 
but with which Mr. Fowler was connected f 
It seems to Feda that this building is not 
high, and not quite by itself, but as if built 
at the side of another one. Mr. Fowler was 
rather particularly linked with the lesser 
building.’ 


This is perfectly accurate as applied to the class- 
room which projected at right angles from the 
rear of our Wesleyan Church. Mr. Fowler regularly 
officiated at meetings held therein in connection 
with the round of Church activities. 


CHAPTER IV 
FURTHER EXAMPLES OF BOOK TESTS 


Upon first acquaintance with book tests certain 
questions relating to the likelihood of coincidence, 
or the possibility of collusion, spring almost inevi- 
tably to the mind. These are noticed in the next 
and following chapters, and it may be that some 
readers will prefer to pass immediately to those 
sections, feeling no inclination for further examples 
until assured that book tests represent an unques- 
tionably psychic phenomenon. 

Yet in dealing with so considerable a collection 
of disconnected items, it will be advantageous to 
display in due order the material upon which final 
conclusions must be based, more especially as some 
of the book messages given in this chapter will be 
referred to in our progressive argument. 

In form, a book test may be either a single 
statement, or one compounded of two or more items 
from the same book. 

The subject-matter may be either general or 
personal; in the latter case it is connected in some 
way with the life or surroundings of the person to 
whom it is given, or to the alleged communicator. 

Most interesting of all are those personal tests 
which contain internal evidence of the identity 
of the communicator; of such the Toddington 

30 


nn eS ane en eg Oe ee fe Re 





Further Examples of Book Tests 


incident recorded in the previous chapter is an 
example. 


An exact description of the position of the book 
and page was first given, and then the message 
continued :— 


‘Near the top, say one-quarter down, you 
will see reference to a religious change, and 
almost underneath it are words expressing 
what your father would have felt about such 
a change.’ 


The book was, Dr. McLaren of Manchester, 
and one-quarter down this indicated page are 
lines from an early letter by Dr. McLaren, 
telling of his conversion. ‘The words lower down, 
which are said to express what my father would 
have felt about such a change are, ‘ This 
letter . . . supplies the keynote to his whole 
life.’ ‘They are absolutely the expression of my 
father’s unvarying pronouncement upon the in- 
fluence of conversion; to him it was indeed the 
keynote to which the whole life harmonised. 


This test continued :— 


“On the same page, lower down, is reference 
to a portrait, and something about it will 
remind you of one in your possession. ‘This 
has to do, not with a description in words, 


31 


Further Examples of Book Tests 


but refers to an actual portrait, and you have 
> 


one. 


The letter quoted on this page ends with the 
signature 4. McLaren, and it may be said that 
this refers to a portrait; inasmuch as the first page 
has a reproduction of a painting of McLaren, and 
the book contains several photographs of him. 

The message may have been rendered less clear — 
by transmission through an interpreter who did 
not quite grasp what was in the mind of the 
communicator. 


II 


The exact whereabouts of a book (proving to be 
The New Theology, by the Rev. R. J. Campbell) 
having been described, there were given several 
accurate descriptions of it, such as, ‘The book 
refers to old time, hundreds of years ago.’ It is 
based upon New Testament writings and The 
Gospel Story. ‘Page 122 seems to be heavy and 
serious and upon an abstruse subject.’ This chapter 
discusses various theories of the Atonement. ‘ The 
word Semitic is within a few pages of 122, and 
also mention of ancient races.’ On page 129 
appear ‘ Greek,’ ‘ Israel,’ ‘ Babylonians,’ ‘ Assyrians,’ 
and ‘ Egypt,’ while the title of the chapter in which 
this page falls is, ‘ Semitic Ideas of Atonement.’ 

Having once or twice said ‘ Semitics,’ Feda 
remarked, ‘ Your father is rubbing his head at 
the mention of the Semitics. Feda thinks perhaps 

32 








Further Examples of Book Tests 


he does not like them much.’ This is rather 
amusing, aS one may suppose the communicator 
was vainly endeavouring to check Feda’s use of 
the word ‘Semitics,’ and persuade her to substitute 
“Semites.’ He tells me that he cannot always 
notice when Feda makes a mistake, and so it goes 
uncorrected, while at other times he suffers a mistake 
to pass rather than create a confusion in her mind 
which would spoil the whole message. It is par- 
ticularly difficult to transmit to her a proper name 
in which she derives little assistance from the 
context. 

I add yet one more of the many references given 
from this book. It is not, perhaps, strongly eviden- 
tial, but suggestive of the way in which certain 
words present to the communicator feedings rather 
than exact ideas. 


'On page.121, there is a reference to 
something bitter or caustic; he gets the spirit 
of the word rather than the letters.’ 


And there followed an effort to get the word 
* guillotine,’ but Feda could do no better than 
‘Calethene.’ The reference to something caustic 
proved to be the following : ‘ Napoleon was one 
day driving through the streets of Paris amid 
cheering crowds. One of his suite remarked to 
him that it must be gratifying to see how his 
subjects loved him. “ Bah!” said the Emperor. 
“The same rabble would cheer me just as 
madly if I were going to the guillotine.” ’ 

33 


Further Examples of Book Tests 
II 


‘In the book-case nearest the door in your 
study, third shelf up, and sixth book from 
left. Page 43 is full of matter that appeals 
to your father, but he gets the idea from it of 
discussion and controversy. There is a feeling 
of Biblical subjects with this book, yet treated 
of and viewed in a cool, cold way. Many 
parts of it gave him the idea of a summing up, 
and a good deal to do with Biblical subjects.’ 


All these books had been changed about since 
the previous sitting. ‘This was a volume of Gibbon’s 
Roman Empire, and the page was concerned with 
seventh century disputes about the person of 
Christ—subject-matter which would certainly have 
appealed to my father. Also, it is here treated wholly 
as a description of the controversies of the Church 
and the attitudes of contending sects. It is given 
in Gibbon’s characteristically ‘cool, cold way,’ 
and is inevitably a continual ‘summing up’ of 
the views of the disputants. 

Added to the above description was the 
following :— 


‘ Near the top of this page is a reference to 
the young man who came last time to speak 


to you here. You will see the direct clue, 


something very much connected with him.’ 


It should be explained that at the previous 
sitting there had been some evidential messages 
34 


at 
He 
i: 

ur 

%, 

; 





Further Examples of Book Tests 


from a friend whose favourite subject was Greek. 
Two years previously, on the occasion of my first 
visit to Mr. Vout-Peters for a demonstration of 
clairvoyance, this gentleman had been accurately 
described and termed, ‘your Greek friend.’ In 
the present sitting, when the giving of book tests 
was finished, he spoke again through Feda, and, 
among other things, reminded me of his devotion 
to Greek studies. With this in mind I anticipated 
that on this page there might be found some 
reference to his favourite subject. There was. 
The word ‘ Greek’ appeared in the sixth line in 
the phrase, “The Greek Clergy.’ 

I had not read this particular volume. It will 
be noticed that every point given is correct, and 
there are six in all, viz.: matter interesting to my 
father; discussion and controversy; Biblical sub- 
jects; treatment in ‘cool, cold way’; summing 
up; reference to Greek near top of page. 


IV 


After indicating a certain book-shelf in my study 
by reference to the pictures near it, all most 
accurately described, Feda said:— 


‘Count from left to right, the third book, 
and page 87. On this page, and on page 
132 also, is something interesting to you and 
to your father. Page 87 has to do with 
“hearing,” not ordinary hearing with the ear, 
but as from the spirit world. The words 


oD 


Further Examples of Book Tests 


refer to literal hearing; take them as a message 
from him about your hearing him now. They 
suggest communication.’ 


The book was, The Early Story of Israel, by 
E. L. Thomas, and page 87 contained the legend, 
‘As they stripped Aaron, a silvery veil of cloud 
sank over him like a pall and covered him. Aaron 
seemed to be asleep. Then Moses said, “ My 
brother, what dost thou feel?”’ “I feel nothing 
but the cloud that envelops me,’’ answered he. 
After a little pause Moses said again, “* My brother, 
what dost thou feel?” He answered feebly, “‘ The 
cloud surrounds me and bereaves me of all joy.” 
And the soul of Aaron was parted from his body. 
As it went up, Moses cried once more, “ Alas, my 
brother, what dost thou feel?’’ And the soul 
replied, ‘“‘ I feel such joy that I would it had come 
to me sooner.” ’ 

Thus both the themes mentioned, literal hearing 
and communication by the spirit, are found to be 
present. 

Feda continued :— 


‘ Page 132 1s a kind of continuation of the 
above message. A reference to your medium- 


ship, but slightly different from the “ hearing.””’ 


It was a description of Gideon, when near the 
enemy camp, overhearing the telling of a signifi- 
cant dream. ‘Thus in this reference we have com- 
munication by dream, and in the previous one 
communication by voice. Both methods were of 

30 





Further Examples of Book Tests 


interest to my father and to me; for some months 
he had been successful in communicating with me 
in words through different mediums, and only 
three nights previously I had three dreams, after 
each of which I awoke conscious of something 
unusual about them and the impression accom- 
panying them. These dreams were alluded to and 
explained at the conclusion of this book message. 
Thus I had experienced communication by word 
and by dream, and this book test clearly refers to 
both methods. 
The message continued :— 


‘This book is not like the last one, not so 
dry. Although not tremendously interesting 
it is more generally so, more popular.’ 

‘The letter ‘‘S” is on the title-page.’ 

‘A picture is near the beginning, not 
coloured, but black and white.’ 

“Page 3 refers to something which you 
once studied and were interested in, but 
afterwards your opinions about it underwent 
a change.’ 


All these descriptions proved to be accurate. 
Here were six correct items from one book. 


V 


For some time I had been practising what is 
known as ‘ Inspirational Writing,’ and my father 
claimed that he was often able to ‘ lift me above 

37 


Further Examples of Book Tests 


myself’ and assist me to some extent, both during 
such writing and when speaking in public. After 


the usual explicit directions for finding the book, 
Feda said:— | 


“On page 14, and half-way down, there is 
something you can take as a reference to the 
fact of his trying to speak through you. Note 
especially that it is to the fact of his trying, 
because on page 66, near the top, is another > 
reference which you can take as allusion, 
not this time to the fact, but to she effect he 
wishes to accomplish or lead towards by 
speaking through you.’ 


Half-way down the page first given were the 
words, ‘ No uninspired writer,’ and this seemed to 
sufficiently harmonise with the claim that my 
writing and speech had been influenced by his 
thought. One-third down the other designated 
page were the words, ‘ God’s will is always done.’ 
To assist in this result would unquestionably be my 
father’s aim in all his work with me, whether in 
speech or writing. | 


VI 4 


A few months after the commencement of book 
tests one was prefaced by the remark, ‘“ These 
tests will be subtle, and the more they are looked 
at the more will they yield.’ The book indicated 
by Feda on this occasion proved to be Kipling’s 

38 





Further Examples of Book Tests 


Kim, and the page to which the directions alluded 
commenced a new chapter with the following 
lines :-— 


‘Largesse! Largesse, O Fortune! 
Give or hold at your will. 
If I’ve no care for Fortune, 
Fortune must follow me still!’ 


To this the following assertions seemed pecu- 
liarly applicable:— 


‘Rather near the top are important words. 
They refer to something relating to your life 
about two years before your first coming 
here to talk with him through Feda. It 
applies strongly to that period.’ 


My first visit to Mrs. Leonard was on February 
3rd, 1917, and two years previous to that date 
would be February, 1915. We certainly received 
‘largesse’ in the financial sense owing to the 
passing of a relation in that month, and, curiously 
(whether intended as part of the test or not), the 
latter two lines exactly hit off subsequent happenings. 

Feda continued :— 


‘There is a further test very close; either 
on the same page or on the next one you will 
see what may be termed one of your names.’ 


Upon the page preceding was a description of 
the meeting after absence of an old man and his 
son,— 

39 


Further Examples of Book Tests 


‘The old man’s face lit with pride. ‘‘ My child,” 
said he briefly. .. . 
They embraced each other, as do father and son 
in the East.’ 


From the lips of my communicator, ‘ My child,’ 
is, of course, ‘one of my names.’ 


* He wants you to look farther on, page 99, 
to find a message rather more than half-way 
down the page, which refers more to himself 
and will have a bearing upon his earth life, 
especially the latter part. It is a direct refer- 
ence to something which you will recognise as 
pertaining to him. He sensed it by accident 
while looking for the other; he sensed your 
name there.’ 


The bottom paragraph of this page reads: ‘“‘ A 
blessing on thee.’’ The lama inclined his solemn 
head. “I have known many men in my so long 
life, and disciples not a few. But to none among 
men ... has my heart gone out as it has to thee.” ’ 

I was an only son. 


VII 


‘The set of books near the door, right- 
hand corner, bottom shelf, first book, page 2, 
and about the middle, there find something 
he wishes you to take as a personal message 
from him to you.’ 


40 





Further Examples of Book Tests 


In the exact middle of this page was a line 
beginning, ‘ Happy, happy, happy,’ and this agrees 
with what my father has frequently described about 
his present state and surroundings. The whole 
paragraph reads, “ At the close of the year 1767 
the Earl of Buchan died triumphing in the faith 
of Christ. He had been in the habit of hearing 
Whitfield, the Wesleys, and others, at Bath, and 
had felt their ministry a blessing. His last words 
were, “ Happy, happy, happy!” ’ The relevancy 
of this is unmistakable. 


E HLS. 4I E 


CHAPTER V 


HOW FAR MAY CHANCE COINCIDENCE ACCOUNT FOR 
THE FACTS ? 


In reconsidering book messages after the long 
interval which has elapsed since they were first 
verified, I am conscious of the lessened force with 
which they must inevitably strike the reader who 
knows at the outset that some sort of success is 
about to be recorded. 

My attitude of mind when receiving these earlier 
tests, and returning home to search them out, was 
far otherwise. It seemed so impossible that they 
should come out right, so incredible that one should 
have heard from the lips of a comparative stranger, 
who had never been inside one’s house, minute 
details about books which one could only verify 
by returning home to search. And even. when 
search had revealed the relevant passage, not only 
upon the right page, but upon the designated part 
of that page, it seemed at first too remarkable to 
be more than a coincidence. 

I recollect how, after verifying the first book 
message received, I tried to find something equally 
appropriate in the dozen books standing to right 
and left. But their corresponding pages showed 
nothing in any way relevant. The test had been 
correct for the book indicated and for that one only. 

42 





How far may Coincidence account for the Facts ? 


Time after time, when returning home to search 
for book messages newly given, it seemed as if past 
successes must be an unaccountable phenomenon 
which could not continue. Each time the success 
was repeated the impression made on my mind 
deepened. Notes were kept of the failures as 
carefully as of the successes; both were counted 
and weighed, and a judgment slowly formed upon 
consideration of all the facts. ‘This and subsequent 
chapters will record the method by which alterna- 
tive explanations were gradually eliminated until 
the spirit hypothesis alone remained. 

It is, of course, impossible to pass on to others 
the full force of a cumulative impression. Some 
may airily assume that I was easily satisfied and 
over willing to be convinced. The experiments, 
of which the record may easily be read in two 
hours, were in progress for as many years, during 
which time each month added to my experience 
and strengthened my conviction. The most that 
personal investigators can do is to record their 
final conclusions, and give some indication of the 
successive steps by which these have been attained. 
In seeking an explanation of book tests we shall 
do well to consider both the normal and the super- 
normal possibilities, but to try the former first, 
considering whether familiar causes can satis- 
factorily account for the facts. It is first of all 
necessary to discuss the possibility of chance 
coincidence having played its part, and to form 
an approximate idea as to how great or how 
small that part may be. For while the mind 


43 


How far may Coincidence account for the Facts ? 


holds a vague impression that ‘a good deal of it 
is chance,’ the full import of book tests will 
remain unperceived, and some may even argue 
thus: ‘If part of it is coincidence, then probably 
all is simply that and nothing more.’ 

It is possible that chance may explain some of 
these tests while failing to explain all. In several 
instances there have been four or more tests 
correctly verified from one book; if any one 
supposes that this might be coincidence let him 
make trial in his library. I have made experi- 
ments establishing the result that, with single 
words, a good hit may be occasionally obtained, 
likewise single statements, if not too definite, 
may be sometimes matched in pages chosen at 
random; but, with linked statements, we seldom 
get hits by coincidence, and where a number of 
tests are to be looked for upon the same page, 
or upon definitely related pages, the possibility of 
such coincidence may be disregarded. 

In book test No. 3, recorded in Chapter II, the 
clue given, ‘a roaring noise,’ is of the kind easily 
met by chance: had the majority of the tests received 
been of this character the only safeguard against 
their having been the result of coincidence would 
be that their position upon the page was somewhat 
precisely stated. And it is worthy of. note, how, in 
the majority of instances, this position upon the 
designated page was found to have been given 
accurately. It is one thing to look for a reference 
to a “heavy roaring noise’ upon a certain page, 
but quite another, and far more difficult, to find 

44 





How far may Coincidence account for the Facts ? 


such reference haphazard very low on the page; 
in looking for verifications with the latter 
modification the likelihood of chance hits is pro- 
portionately lessened. 


SomME Fictitious Boox Tests 


I have experimented to test the likelihood of 
chance coincidences. Using the first forty tests 
received, I tried for each with books selected at 
random, looking for each verification upon ¢hree 
or more pages. ‘The result was a decided failure; 
the exceptions almost invariably relating to single 
and somewhat vaguely described tests, such as ‘a 
reference to effort,’ or ‘a reference to colour.’ But 
where in the communicator’s tests such generalities 
as these had been associated with further items, to 
be found upon the same, or related pages, chance 
rarely afforded any parallel to the success of the 
original verification. 

The following were among the best coincidences 
in this experiment :— 

Book test No. 2, recorded in Chapter III, 
contains six items:— 

‘ A-sh-ill-ee’ . . . “something about en- 
deavour’ . . . ‘a word commencing ““M” 
prominent therein’ . . . ‘a reference to an 
event in my life of three years before’... 
‘something relating to my wife’... 
‘description of the place where my father 
and I had lived together.’ 


45 


How far may Coincidence account for the Facts ? 


Of these six points a book by Spiller entitled 
The Meaning of Marriage yielded the following 
three :— 

‘ A-sh-ill-ee.’” The name Spiller on the cover 
gives the letters ‘ ille’ in correct order. 

‘A reference to endeavour, less than half-way 
down page 87.’ Opening at random upon page 3, 
there was the following passage near the bottom 
of the page, ‘We may ungrudgingly pay a well- 
deserved tribute to the mother cat whose tireless 
devotion to her young is both touching and 
heroic. Motherhood already, means much in the 
animal world! Human parents have, however, 
a far more arduous and time-devouring task to 
accomplish.’ 

All this might be taken as reference to ‘ effort.’ 

‘There is a word commencing with “MM” 
which has an Hear at place in it and a bearing 
upon this message.’ 

This is fulfilled by ‘ Motherhood.’ Coincidence 
thus scored three consecutive hits. But here it 
ceased altogether. For with the remaining three 
items of the test my dippings hither and thither 
yielded no faintest trace of agreement. 


Another rather good coincidence happened on 
comparing book test No. 4, recorded in Chapter IV, 


with Vol. II of Martineau’s Types of Ethical 


Theory (3rd edition, Clarendon Press Series). 
‘Page 87 has to do with “ hearing,’’ 
Failure. 


‘Page 132 is a kind of continuation of the 
46 


etc. 





How far may Coincidence account for the Facts ? 


above; a reference to your mediumship, but slightly 
different from “‘hearing.”’ Alighting by chance 
upon page 393 I found a few lines about evolution 
which seemed not wholly irrelevant. 

©The letter “S,”? 1s. jon. the title-page,”’.... The 
word ‘Series’ was in the title. 


‘Page 3 refers to something which you 
once studied and were interested in, but 
afterwards your opinions about it underwent 
a change.’ 


On page 3 Martineau mentions Darwin’s Descent 
of Man, which, curiously, bears upon the Genesis 
story of Creation, and this was the theme that 
verified the original test. 

Here there were three coincidences, but no 
more; the remaining three items of the test were 
not matched by any correspondence whatever. 

In this manner the likelihood of coincidence was 
proved to be small; for out of the forty book tests in 
which my father had been correct for thirty-five, 
chance achieved only fourteen hits, although each 
test was looked for on three different pages in order 
to give wider scope for the operation of coincidence. 

A further investigation upon similar lines showed 
that where original book tests scored twenty-five 
successes out of a possible thirty-two, chance 
yielded but ten, and of these none were strikingly 
good. 

One book test given by my communicator 
contained six items, four of which were found upon 
two opposite pages. It is scarcely probable that 


47 


How far may Coincidence account for the Facts ? 


one could light upon any chance parallel to these 
verifications ; in fact, I have searched twenty 
casually opened pages without success. 

Numerous comparisons of this nature might be 
adduced indicating how, in gua/lity, even more 
than in number, the tests as originally verified 
proved superior to those found by chance. 

The succession of verifications recorded in 
Appendix B, where book and title tests are inter- 
mingled, presents an instance which one would 
despair of matching by chance. 

But the most satisfactory method by which a 
wavering judgment might be convinced would 
probably be the attempt to match the standard 
of results obtained in the tests recorded in 
Chapter VIII. There is the evidence of my 
friend Mr. Bird that notes of these were in his 
possession before the books were allowed to see 
the light of day, and he checked the verifications. 

In these instances, therefore, the question of my 
veracity or accuracy need not be considered. Were 
these verifications attributable to coincidence it 
should be possible to match them by inspection of 
books taken haphazard. AQ trial on these lines 
might effectively impress upon the unconvinced an 
idea of the small likelihood of securing equally 
accurate results by chance. 


48 


_ 


CHAPTER VI 


CAN COLLUSION EXPLAIN? EXPERIMENT WITH 
A SEALED BOOK 


We now turn to the question of Trickery. This 
may seem almost unnecessary in view of the 
difficulties involved in any supposed attempt to 
obtain information about my books by means of a 
confederate in our house. But it is a question 
occasionally asked, and must therefore be met. 
Mrs. Leonard has never been in our house, and I 
am convinced of the perfect fidelity of those living 
with me, 

The question which most interested me at this 
stage of the experiments was whether, in some 
inexplicable way, the results depended upon tele- 
pathy from my own mind? 

This chapter and the two following will record 
experiments in which I was assisted by my friend, 
Mr. G. F. Bird of 26 Westmoreland Road, Bromley, 
Kent. While the primary object of these experi- 
ments was to exclude any possibility of telepathy, 
the conditions under which they were conducted 
equally precluded collusion, or any kind of 
trickery. 


EXPERIMENT WITH A SEALED Boox 


At the time of the experiment now to be described, 
tests had been given from eight books in our house, 


49 


Can Collusion Explain ? 


three of which I had not read; but as these had 
been read by others, it seemed desirable to test 
with a book which none of us had seen. I there- 
fore arranged with my friend that he should select 
from his library a book unknown to me, wrap it 
up and seal it, and allow it to be in my study for 
a few weeks. This he did in a workman-like 
manner, placing stout card around it so that it 
would be impossible for any one to make a rubbing 
through the paper for the purpose of ascertaining 
the title, and finally sealing it with private seals. 
This parcel was brought to me on December 2nd, 
1917, and at the next sitting—to which my friend 
did wot accompany me, indeed he has never seen 
Mrs, Leonard—lI asked my communicator to select 
tests from it. ‘Those given below were received 
on December 13th and 20th. Having typed them 
in duplicate I took the book to Mr. Bird and handed 
him a copy of the tests; this he read through, and 
then proceeded to open the packet and compare 
the book with my notes. He found the seals and 
wrappings intact. The book proved to be one 
which I had read eight years previously, but it is 
difficult to imagine that this could have influenced 
the result of the experiment. Herewith are the 
statements given at the two sittings, together with 
our findings and my comments. 


‘Has not the book string around it? It 
appears to have it double.’ 


There was not only string around the outer 
50 





Experiment with a Sealed Book 


covering, but also a second string around an inner 
wrapping. It was tied twice. Of course I had 
seen the string outside, but knew nothing of the 
further string and wrapper inside. 


‘The book seems to be tied peculiarly and 
wrapped twice.’ 


The ends of both lots of string were elaborately 
sealed to the paper. There was an outer paper 
tied and sealed, then an inner paper. similarly tied 
and sealed. When this was removed it revealed 
the cardboard surrounding the book. 


‘This book is about a subject which would 
appeal to your father, but about which he 
has to a certain extent altered his mind.’ 


The book was The Supernatural? by L. A. 
Weatherly, M.D., and J. N. Maskelyne, published 
by Arrowsmith, preface dated 1891. The authors 
very stoutly oppose the idea that departed spirits 
communicate with human beings, and ridicule the 
claim that such communications have actually 
come by means of mediums. My father, who 
passed on some fourteen years previously, was a 
Wesleyan minister, and throughout his forty-five 
years of preaching would have frequently turned 
his thoughts to the spirit world. But the theological 
atmosphere of his day would give him little con- 
ception of the close relation possible between that 
world and ours, and his reference to an alteration 


51 


Can Collusion Explain ? 


of mind after passing over, indicates his discovery 
of the intimate relations existing between the two 
worlds, and the possibility of communication. This 
is again touched on later. 


‘Page 5 refers to something he liked doing 
when on earth; it is about a third down the 


page.’ 


Line 12 speaks of putting a check to superstition, 
and this is entirely in harmony with my father’s 
character. But a reference so indefinite would have 
little evidential value in isolation; it was linked 
with another. 


‘Also soon after the above there is a 
reference to a light or fire.’ 


Near the bottom of the same page is mention of 
the electric light being installed in the streets of 
Calcutta. It will be noticed that there are two 
references to this page, one indefinite and one 
definite, and that they are found in the order he 
stated. 

Feda then continued,— 


* You'll be amused when you see that book.’ 


More than once Feda remarked that my father 
was laughing because of this book and its bearing 
upon himself. Mr. Bird, who knew my father 
forty years ago, was impressed by this statement, 

52 


Experiment with a Sealed Book 


and before proceeding to undo the packet remarked 
that, on the supposition of my father being able 
to read the book, it would be quite characteristic 
of him to be amused at the humour of the situation 
resulting from selection of such a book for purpose 
of this experiment. Here is a book holding up 
to derision the assertion that a spirit can enter 
into communication with earth through a medium. 
It is from this very book that a spirit is selecting 
references and transmitting them through a medium, 
—and he does this for the express purpose of proving 
that a spirit can communicate with men by this 
method. It must have been a delightful situation, 
and was evidently appreciated to the full; Feda 
several times interrupted her remarks to say how 
much amused he was. No such remarks had been 
made during tests from the previous eight books 
selected by him for experiment, and to none of 
those would they have been in the least degree 
applicable. 


Feda continued,— 


“It was a subject that interested him very 
much, and one about which he changed his 
Opinion when on earth and has changed it 
again since passing on.’ 

‘At its very beginning this book has a 
strange association for him upon matters that 
concerned him about twenty years before he 
passed on. You may have heard about it, 
or if not, you can verify this by asking your 
mother. ‘There is a link with that period of 
nearly twenty years before.’ 


23 


Can Collusion Explain ? 


Eighteen years before his passing in 1903 my 
father met a lady, a natural medium, whose life 
had been crowded with remarkable phenomena. 
She became a personal friend of my parents, and 
her narrations greatly interested them and were a 
frequent subject of conversation. At that period, 
therefore, more than at any other time, matters 
relating to the spirit world and psychic phenomena 
were talked of in our family. My mother says 
that my father must to some extent have changed 
his opinions after meeting this lady, as they were 
both convinced of the genuineness of her experiences. 
The three states of mind alluded to may therefore 
be termed: early indifference, aroused interest, and, 
since his passing, realisation. Following up this 
reference to ‘ the very beginning of the book,’ one 
finds that its first words are the following quotation 
from Maudsley, ‘If all visions, intuitions, and 
other modes of communication with the super- 


natural, accredited now or at any time, have been 


no more than phenomena of psychology—instances, 
that is, of sub-normal, super-normal, or abnormal 
mental function—and if all existing supernatural 
beliefs are survivals of a state of thought befitting 
lower stages of human development, the continuance 
of such beliefs cannot be helpful, it must be hurtful 
to human progress.’ The first words of the con- 
tents-table are—‘ Superstition, Witchcraft, Believers 
in the Supernatural.’ Thus the subject-matter of 
the book, as expressed at its beginning, took back 
his thoughts to the time when he first seriously 
faced the subject of communication with one’s 


24 


ee ee 
Bin, fw Pc) 


Ne ee 


Paran oe 


pie 5-2 








‘ cS 
"en 


_ 


ee = al 


Experiment with a Sealed Book 


departed friends. That it was a possibility he could 
not but believe after making the acquaintance of 
the lady above mentioned. He held an open mind, 
but did not pursue the subject, and was inclined 
to share the conventional opinion that the doings 
of Spiritualism were either fraudulent or wrong. 
At my first sitting with Mrs. Leonard he remarked, 
through Feda, referring to the study of com- 
munication with friends in the Beyond, that ‘ when 
on earth he would have been very wary of it.’ 


* This book has, near the beginning, a word 
in handwriting. Either it is written or it is 
a facsimile. ‘This is unmistakable. Such a 
definite statement should be a striking bit of 
proof.’ 


In the top right-hand corner of the title-page 
my friend’s signature was written in ink. It is 
the only handwriting in the book. Not all books 
have the owner’s name therein: nor had such an 
item been mentioned in any previous test. 


* There is a page with columns in it.’ 


This perhaps refers to a picture which faces the 
title-page. The picture represents a conservatory, 
the roof of which is supported upon twenty slender 
columns. 


‘One of the first pages has something in the 
nature of a diagram; it is more diagram than 
picture. To Feda it looks like dark lines.’ 


he) 


Can Collusion Explain ? 


This was correct. The diagram is upon page 
13, which is ‘one of the first,’ as the book runs 
on to page 273. It occupies a good half of the 
page, and consists of four black lines uniting large 
circles. 

At my next sitting, a reference to the success 
of this experiment led to a conversation upon the 
subjects of spirit communication and of superstition. 
Feda represented my father as strongly emphasising 
the distinction between the two, and as having 
become favourable to the former owing to his wider 
experience since passing over. 

Continuing to speak through Feda, he explained 
at some length what he meant by superstition, and 
urged that, just because so many people are merely 
superstitious, and not scientifically or religiously 
interested in discovering the real truth about 
happenings seemingly super-normal, it is better 
that the truth of spirit communication should not 
be pressed upon those spiritually or mentally un- 
prepared for it. 

Feda added, ‘He has already warned you about 
the danger of bringing this subject before undesir- 
able people. ‘This book substantiates that. His 
mind has changed about Spiritualism as a whole, 
but upon the one point he is stronger than before. 
It has been misused by some; not only by the 
foolishly curious, but also by those who took it up 
for bad ends—Black Magic. Some people have 
undoubtedly used psychic powers for bad ends. It 
is like playing with a sharp weapon; they cut them- 
selves badly, but unfortunately they often hurt 

50 





Experiment with a Sealed Book 


others first. Such people give the whole subject 
a bad reputation. But used wisely it is a great 
power for good, as you yourself have already 
experienced.’ 

The foregoing remarks, purporting to come from 
my father, struck me as strongly characteristic of 
him. 


E.H.S. 57 F 


CHAPTER VII 


EXPERIMENT WITH AN UNSEEN BOOKSHELF 


Durine a sitting with Mrs. Leonard on May 31st, 
1918, my communicator suggested trying a test 
with books entirely unknown to me and in some 
room to which I had no access. At the next sitting, 
June 21st, I said the plan was excellent, and that 
I proposed to ask the friend who had previously 
helped by arranging the ‘Sealed Book Test’ to 
name some shelf in his house upon which the 
experiment might be tried; and I inquired whether, 
when the shelf had been decided upon, I might 
mentally inform my father of its whereabouts? 
The reply came, ‘ Try to do so; concentrate upon 
the place agreed on.’ It was June 25th when 
I discussed the matter with my friend, George 
Frederick Bird, at his house. His study is upstairs, 
a room I had not seen and of which I then knew 
nothing. We agreed that he should select a 
particular shelf in that room and fill it with books 
which he had himself read; for at this time I con- 
sidered that books which had been read were 
easier for my communicator to operate upon. Mr. 
Bird went to his study and on returning said he 
had arranged for the test. He drew a sketch of 
the room, indicating the shelf selected, and wrote 
the following description to facilitate the attempt 
58 





Experiment with an Unseen Booksheif 


to inform my father of its position before next 
visiting Mrs. Leonard. ‘ Fred Bird’s study imme- 
diately opposite the top of the first flight of stairs 
in his house. ‘The large bookcase on the right- 
hand side as the door is opened. The fourth shelf 
from the bottom—not including the two shelves 
in the cupboard below. The right-hand section 
of the fourth shelf.’ 

Six days later I tried to give my father the where- 
abouts of this shelf, and repeated the endeavour 
night and morning during four days previously 
to a sitting on July sth. Not once during that, or 
the following sittings, did I say anything as to the 
locality of the test books beyond the following 
question: ‘Did my father get the message I tried 
to give him about the position of a shelf we chose 
for the book test in Fred Bird’s house?’ The 
reply was, “He believed he did; he got it near 
enough,’ and then immediately several statements 
were made, of which the following are examples, 
our subsequent verifications being appended to 
each. 

Feda’s words are placed within quotation marks, 
and my comments follow. 


‘The shelf is not near the door, he had to 
go straight in.’ 


This is accurate; the door opens on the right, 
and one is obliged to go straight into the room 
before turning towards the right, the shelf is then 
several paces away. 

39 


Experiment with an Unseen Bookshelf 


‘It is in or near a recess; for he felt either 
a recess or a projection.’ 


This is true, but I could have guessed as much 
(although as a matter of fact I gave it no thought) 
from a study of the plan. The recess is formed 
by an adjoining bookcase, which, coming at right 
angles with the one in question, makes a recess 
measuring 27 inches wide and 12 deep between 
the two. 


‘ He feels there is something very hard and 
shiny close to it, perhaps a sheet of something 
very smooth and cold, and it seems to be on 
the right side of it.’ 


Standing on the floor only three inches from the 
foot of the bookcase is the footplate of a weighing 
machine. It is on the right-hand side and, being 
of painted iron, is ‘very hard and shiny . . . very 
smooth and cold.’ 


* Take the third book from the left. At the 
beginning of its reading matter, probably on 
the first page, a bridge is spoken of, and it 
goes on to allude to water. He is not sure 
what water, whether sea or river, as he just 
gets the impression of water.’ 

“Not far from the reference to the bridge 
is an important word commencing with “ S,” 
rather long and peculiar, the name of a person 
or a place.’ 


This book proved to be Hudson’s Bay, by 
Ballantyne. 
60 





Experiment with an Unseen Bookshelf 


Line 16 from the start of the preface reads, 
. railway communication will doubtless ere 
long connect it with Canada on the one hand and 
the Pacific seaboard on the other. . . .?. The idea 
expressed as a ‘bridge’ might perhaps be the 
railway bridging the distance between the places 
named, while ‘ Pacific seaboard’ sufficiently meets 
the reference to water. 
The above sentence in the book continues, 
» while the presence of gold in the Saskat- 
chewan .\. 2’ 


$ 
9 


‘There is a date at the beginning on the 
first page or fly-leaf. A date that will have a 
meaning for Fred.’ ‘On that date Fred did 
something important, which made a change in 
his earthly conditions.’ 


On the fly-leaf was inscribed, ‘ George Frederick 
Bird. Xmas, 1877.’ 

Mr. Bird commenced the New Year by going 
to his first school, having previously been taught 
at home. 


_ ‘He made a journey after or just before 
which the change took place.’ 


Quite true, he had been to Llandudno the 
previous summer, his home at that time being in 
Lincolnshire. 


“On the title-page there is a name or word 
connected with Fred.’ 
61 


Experiment with an Unseen Bookshelf 


Mr. Bird has made a special study of railway 
engines, contributing many articles and drawings 
to technical journals, besides publishing a book 
upon the subject. We found on this title-page a 
term often applied to the railway engine, viz., 
* The Iron Horse.’ 


_ * Another book close thereto suggests Fred’s 
frame of mind respecting these book tests.’ 


Close to the above stood The Supernatural ? by 
Weatherly and Maskelyne, in which they combat 
the claim that a spirit can communicate information 
through a medium. This identical volume had 
been the subject of the recent ‘Sealed Book Test.’ 
My friend admitted the suitability and accuracy 
of this allusion. I may here say that my chief 
reason for asking his help in these experiments was 
his keenly critical attitude towards the claims of 
Psychic Research and Spiritualism. 


‘One of these books seems to have loose 
pages, or else something in it which would 
drop out if opened carelessly; one book.’ 


The foregoing book had, slipped inside it, a 
pamphlet and a folded newspaper cutting. It was 
the only book on the shelf containing any loose 
matter. 

There now followed a description of the height 
and position of the shelf, and this, upon subsequent 
inspection, proved correct. 

62 





Experiment with an Unseen Bookshelf 


Holidays intervened, and it was not till October 
8th and 18th that I had the next two sittings 
which completed the experiment. Meanwhile I 
had not entered Mr. Bird’s study, and he was careful 
that the experiment-shelf remained untouched. 
It was only after the whole list of test items had 
been received, typed, and given to Mr. Bird that 
I accompanied him to his study, where together 
we compared the notes with books and room. The 
following were the most striking results. 


‘Close to that shelf there is a thing with 
numbers on it, it is on the wall; numbers like 
I-2-3 on it.’ 


Nine inches from the shelf there is upon the wall 
a framed picture representing three locomotive 
engines of different types. Two of them bear 
figures, “No 1’ and ‘ No. 251.’ The picture was 
drawn by Mr. Bird, who tells me that he always 
thinks of these engines as ‘ Nos. 1, 2, and 3.’ At 
the side of these are three perpendicular columns, 
each containing fifteen lines of numerals. 


‘Something close to the books, to one side 
of them, felt like a small wood shelf,’ 


A little below the right corner of the shelf is 
the top of a hanging cupboard upon which stands 
a shallow box, 27 inches long, serving the purposes 
of a shelf and with a variety of articles on it. This, 
not being indicated in the sketch-plan, was unknown 
to me. 

63 


Experiment with an Unseen Bookshelf 


‘In the second book from the right, and 
on page 2, is a reference to sea or ocean; he 
is not sure which, because he gets only the 
idea, and not the words.’ 


Here we found the line, ‘ A first-rate seaman, 
grown old between sky and ocean.’ It may have 
been coincidence that doth sea and ocean were in 
the text. 


‘Third book from the right, page 9, there 
is a reference to journeying, travelling; it 
seems to be about a third down.’ 


This was quite correct. The test proceeded :— 


‘ Lower down still is a reference to changing 
of colours.’ 


Below the foregoing and about two-thirds down 
the page is the following: ‘Along the northern 
horizon the sky suddenly changes from light blue 
to a dark lead colour.’ A test is the stronger when 
a second reference is given from one page, as here. 

There was a further reference to colour:— 


‘Something in the room close to the shelves 
seems blue. ‘The eye gets the impression of 
blue on looking there; it seems to him like 
a big patch of blue close to the shelf.’ 


On the next shelf but one below, there stood a 
set of twenty tall volumes, extending thirty inches, 
and bound in cloth of a strong mid-blue colour. 

64 


ny 
f. 
4 > 
A 
. 
{ i 
a 
‘a 
e 
a 





Experiment with an Unseen Bookshelf 


More striking, however, was the following :— 


‘One book on the shelf near the left end 
has a map.’ 
Fay 
Among these thirty books there stood, sixth 
from the left, Winston Churchill’s London to Lady- 
smith via Pretoria, and this contains a large folding 
map. There was no other map on the shelf. Mr. 
Bird told me he had forgotten the existence of 
this map until we happened upon it in our search. 
To avoid wearying the reader several verifica- 
tions, similar in character to the foregoing, are 
omitted. 


CoNCLUSION 


This experiment indicated that the communi- 
cator’s ability to perceive books and objects is 
entirely independent of the sitter’s knowledge or ignorance 
of the articles. 

However, I wished to ascertain whether Mr. 
Bird’s intimate acquaintance with his own study 
and books might have been subliminally imparted 
to me and thence to the medium ? 

It is unprofitable to discuss the possibility or 
impossibility of that which only experiment can 
decide. We therefore devised and carried out the 
experiments recorded in the following chapter. 


05 


CHAPTER VIII y 
EXPERIMENT WITH AN UNOPENED PARC®&L 


ConseQuENT upon the experiment described, it 
remained to be proved that books could be “ sensed ’ 
under circumstances precluding possibility of any 
human knowledge as to their contents. At the 
request of my friend, an obliging bookseller gathered 
together a dozen old volumes without looking at 
the titles, sending them in a parcel which remained 
unopened in Mr. Bird’s study. 1 received tests 
therefrom at two sittings with Mrs. Leonard in 
November and December, 1918. Notes were 
typed and a copy handed to Mr. Bird before we 
proceeded to open the parcel, now seen by me 
for the first time. The following were the most 
striking of the verifications :— 


‘One book, he did not locate it properly, 
so cannot tell which, gave him a feeling of 
many pictures or diagrams.’ 


Only one book in all the dozen contained any 
illustrations, and this one had six whole-page 
pictures. 


‘ The first book from the left, page 66, near 
the top, has words which you are to take as 
from him, expressing what he thinks of the 








Experiment with an Unopened Parcel 


way you work in studying this subject; they 
describe very well what you are doing.’ 


This book was, The Heart of Humanity, by S. 
Hallifax. The first two lines on page 66 read: 
* Like the climbers of mountain peaks, as pilgrims 
in the spiritual world... .’ My experiences 
seemed faithfully mirrored in these similes. 


“Near the bottom of page 2 there are one 
or two words, a few, and possibly but one, 
describing a form of psychic development 
which he has been, and still is, working with 
you to obtain.’ 


In the eighth line from the bottom of the page 
the word ‘inspiration’ occurs ¢wice. I could 
scarcely fail to be impressed by the striking reference 
to the actual word which had been frequently used 
during previous months in connection with my 
father’s attempts to influence me during writing 
and speaking. At the very sitting where this test 
was given I had a few minutes before been told, ‘ You 
have felt yourself, when speaking, carried above 
self-consciousness; it is when he is close to you. 
Now you may find, that, from the start to the end, 
you are inspired. He could give new interpreta- 
tions such as he cannot give through Freda, things 
known there, but not given to earth. So few can 
be inspired.” I much regret the necessity for 
personal references, but they are essential parts 
of the experiment; indeed, their bearing upon my 
recent endeavours was so cogent that, had there 

07 


Experiment with an Unopened Parcel 


been no further evidence, I should have been 
inclined to suspect that my father had succeeded 
in gaining access to this book. 


‘Page 4, and near the top, say about three 
lines down, has a word giving exactly what 
he hopes Fred (¢.e.. Mr. Bird) will gain from 
his more or less persistent study of the 
subject.’ 


The fourth line down commenced with the 
words, ‘evolution of spirit.’ There was also a 
further reference to Fred’s state of mind; for the 
67th page, ‘ near the top,’ was said to give ‘a very 
good description of his curiosity about the subject.’ 
Fred was then described as being ‘ curious, but in 
a particular way.’ When I remarked at this point 
that I thought his interest was aroused, Feda 
replied, ‘Your father smiles, and says this page 
puts it neatly.” The sentence commences at the 
bottom of the previous page and completes at the 
top of 67: ‘I could only smile, partly from a sense 
of humour; for humour is not without its place 
in spiritual things.’ Humorous curiosity summed 
up F. B.’s attitude at that date. 


A THREEFOLD DescrIPTION 


Feda continued :— 


‘Referring to page 1, something there 
seems as if about to turn out much more 
68 





Experiment with an Unopened Parcel 


interesting than it does. You will under- 
stand when reading it. The scene at the 
start seems to take you to one place, and, 
nearly at the end, is seen to have returned to 
the same scene again, and toa certain amount 
also of the same condition. He felt the 
similarity between the start and the end of 
the book, while the middle sees other places 
and conditions altogether.’ 


Page 1 commences thus: ‘ The supreme personal 
factor in the spiritual history of the world is Jesus 
Christ... .’ The body of the book then deals 
at large with the connection between Christianity 
and theology, paganism, evolution, philosophy, 
comparative religions, and biology. These subjects 
correspond to Feda’s phrase, ‘ other places (subjects) 
and conditions altogether.’ But the final para- 
graph of the book most certainly returns to its 
initial theme: ‘ We abandon ourselves to silent 
communion with Immortal Love personified in 
that lonely figure upon the Cross, the Cross which 
was our starting-point and is still our goal... .’ 


‘At the end of the book he got a feeling 
of great expansion, a broadening out of some- 
thing; this was not the very end, but probably 
in the part immediately preceding the end. 
At the very end there was a curious mixture, 
because, as well as the feeling of expansion 
he got also a “ dropped feeling,” a “‘ let-down 
feeling’; he got this almost simultaneously 
with the previous sense of expansion; they 
came nearly together, but seem so contra- 
dictory.’ 

69 


Experiment with an Unopened Parcel 


This was correct. The concluding paragraphs 
of the book strike a note of triumphant joy. But 
this is immediately followed by a strong reference 
to the world’s pain and heart-break. 

The full relevancy of this threefold description 
could be conveyed adequately only by longer 
quotations. It is a correspondence unlikely to 
happen by chance, inasmuch as it consists of three 
closely related features. 

Then came the following :— 


‘Is there a time-table among these books ? - 
This is not an idle question. You will under- 
stand that there is an object in asking it when 
you see them.’ 


There was a book of devotion containing a 
separate page for each day in the year and also one 
for each Saint’s Day. It is just possible the test 
was intended to connect with this. 

Several other references were accurate, although 
scarcely worth presenting to the reader. They 
add little to the general impression, yet increase 
the proportion of moderate successes. 


EXPERIMENT WITH AN [Ron Box 


We now desired to vary the experiment. Mr. 
Bird obtained another set of books as before, and 
taking them into a dark room, removed the paper 

70 





Experiment with an Unopened Parcel 


wrappings and placed them in an iron deed-box, 
which, after having fastened and sealed, he left in 
my study. From this box tests were given at two 
subsequent sittings. Among our verifications were 
the following :— 


‘Under the title of the second book from 
the left there seem to be several horizontal 
lines, not one merely, but several.’ 


This book was The Poetical Works of Crabbe. 
While none of the others had more than four 
horizontal lines beneath the title, this book had 
nine separate lines and also a number of scrolls 
making lines of sorts. Here was a definite state- 
ment which proved entirely accurate. Again:— 


‘On one of the fly-leaves is a mark looking 
like a little imperfection.’ 


The above book had two fly-leaves, and on the 
first of these was evidence of rough treatment, 
two conspicuous creasings in the paper and some 
dark crayon marks. None of the other books had 
any imperfection on the fly-leaf. 


‘On title-page is a word suggesting wood 
or boards.’ 


This suggestion was not contained in a word, 
but in a picture depicting a rough seat formed of 
three boards fixed beneath a tree, while close by 


7I 


Experiment with an Unopened Parcel 


there lay a fallen tree. Both wood and boards 
were therefore in some sense indicated on the 
title-page. My communicator had more than once 
remarked that he found it difficult to tell whether 
his impressions came from words or pictures, as 
both made much the same impression, unless he 
were doing it clairvoyantly, a method which at 
this stage seemed much more difficult and less 
certain than “ sensing.’ 


“At bottom of page 5 he thought he saw 
a word like “‘ development.” ’ 


Here was an attempt to employ the clairvoyant 
method, which partially succeeded; for less than 
two inches from the bottom was the word 


* developed.’ 


“Page 96, near the top, gave the feeling 
of eating and drinking. ‘This was very strong, 
and he would like in due course to hear if 
he is correct in this.’ 


He was quite correct. One inch from the top 
of the ninety-sixth page the following passage 
commenced :— 


‘These Roman souls, like Rome’s great sons, 
are known 
To live in cells on labours of their own. 
Thus Milo, could we see the noble chief, 
Feeds, for his country’s good, on legs of beef; 
72 





Ne ee 





Experiment with an Unopened Parcel 


Camillus copies deeds for sordid pay, 

Yet fights the public battles twice a day. 

Een now the godlike Brutus views his score 

Scroll’d on the bar-board swinging by the door; 

Where, tippling punch, grave Cato’s self you’ll 
see, 

And Amor Patrie vending smuggled tea.’ 


It will be admitted that tippling punch and feed- 
ing on beef sufficiently verifies the test. Here, then, 
were five correspondences from one book. ‘This 
cannot be explained by chance, for the proba- 
bilities against such a series of coincidences are 
enormous. 


CoNCLUSION 


Both this and the previous experiment were 
designed to show whether or not information could 
be obtained which was outside the knowledge of 
any person, or persons, living on earth. These 
books were lent by a stranger, who gathered them 
haphazard from certain of his shelves without 
glancing at their titles. They were not seen by us 
until we met to compare them with the notes of 
my sittings. The special interest in these two 
experiments is that they indicate my communicator’s 
success in obtaining and transmitting information 
under circumstances leaving no room for telepathy 
from the sitter, the friend who assisted me, the 
bookseller who lent the books, or any other 
person on earth. 

E.HLS. 73 G 


Experiment with an Unopened Parcel 


Note upon Chapters VI-VIII 


There are points about the foregoing experiments 
which should be noted. 

1. They do not stand upon my single testimony; 
I had the co-operation of a friend who was entirely 
sceptical, and who was determined that there should 
be no room for leakage of information through 
normal channels. 

Mr. G. F. Bird! will vouch for his success in this 
precaution. 

2. In not one of these four experiments was | 
aware of the books chosen, while Mr. Bird was 
equally unaware in the two latter experiments. 

3. We believe that not even the bookseller, 
who loaned the books in two instances, was aware 
of their titles, much less of the precise order in 
which they stood. | 

4. In the first and last experiments the books 
were placed in my study, while in the second and 
third they remained in Mr. Bird’s study, to which 
I had no access. | 

These four experiments seemed sufficient demonstra- 
tion that there was continued success even under 
circumstances precluding possibility of trickery or collusion, 
They also showed that telepathy from the sitter or his 
friends could not be invoked as an explanation. | 


1 Address given on page 49. 


74 





CHAP TE Re UX hi 


CAN BOOK TESTS BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE 
MEDIUM’S SUPER-NORMAL POWERS? 


Tue authorship of the book tests described in the 
previous chapters has to be accounted for. It will 
properly be asked whether there are any known 
faculties of the human mind by which their produc- 
tion might be explained ? 

At this point it will be well to consider what 
powers must necessarily have been employed in pro- 
ducing the results described; readers may then 
more easily estimate the probability, or otherwise, 
of such powers having been possessed and exercised 
by Mrs. Leonard. 

We shall find that, for the correct giving of the 
simpler book tests, three unusual, but not entirely 
unknown, powers or faculties are requisite; while, 
for the ‘personal’ book tests, two more would 
seem to have been called into action, faculties which 
in our present stage of knowledge it 1s difficult to 
think of as existing in any human mind. 


I 


Such degree of clairvoyance as would permit the 
making of minute observations in distant places and 
retaining memory of things there seen. 

79 


Can Book Tests be attributed 


This is often termed ‘ Travelling Clairvoyance,’ 
to distinguish it from the clairvoyance by which 
is acquired a knowledge of things near the per- 
cipient, but not observable by any of the five 
senses. 

Clairvoyance has been defined as, ‘ The trans- 
cendental perception by certain individuals of an 
object or writing which cannot be seen by, and is 
unknown to, those present.’ Many instances are 
recorded in a paper by Mrs. H. Sidgwick, entitled, 
‘The Evidence for Clairvoyance’ (Proceedings of the 
Society for Psychical Research, Vol. VII, pp. 30-99; 
356-69), and among them are two specially note- 
worthy cases of ‘clairvoyant travel’ (pp. 49-52; 
58-61). 

Myers’s Human Personality and its Survival of 
Bodily Death: contains references to this ‘travelling’: 


(Vol. I., p. 232).—* As we proceed further, we 
shall see, I think, in many ways how needful 
is this excursive theory to explain many 
telepathic and a// telesthetic experiences; 
many, I mean, of the cases where two 
minds are in communication, and a// the 
cases where the percipient learns material 
facts with which no other known mind is 
concerned.’ 


It seems clear from the last sentence quoted that, 
had Myers been familiar with our phenomenon of 
book test messages, he would have examined, as 
we are now doing, the possibility of its being 


1 Longmans, Green & Co., 1903. 


76 





to the Medium’s Super-normal Powers ? 


accounted for by the ‘travelling clairvoyance’ of 
the medium through whom they are given. 
He comments upon certain instances thus:— 


(Vol. I., p. 279).—‘ In these experiments there 
seems to be an independent power of 
visiting almost any desired place, its position 
having been perhaps first explained by 
reference to some landmark already known. 
The clairvoyante will frequently miss her 
way, and describe houses and scenes ad- 
jacent to those desired. ‘Then if she almost 
literally gets on the scent—if she finds some 
place which the man whom she 1s sent to 
seek has some time traversed—she follows 
up his track with greater ease, apparently 
recognising past events in his life as well 
aS present circumstances. The process 
often reminds one of the dog who, if let 
loose far from home, will find his way 
homewards vaguely at first, and using we 
do not quite know what instinct; then if 
he once gets on the scent, will hold it easily 
across much of confusion and obstacle.’ 


Attention will have been arrested by the above 
suggestion that in such ‘travels’ the clairvoyante 
may be able to recognise past events as well as 
present circumstances. To realise what was in 
Mr, Myers’s thought when penning this sentence 
one should read the several incidents to which he 
is referring; it will then be understood that they 
contain little or nothing of the range of survey over 


77 


Can Book Tests be attributed 


past events to which book tests have introduced us. 
The most apposite of the instances related by Myers 
concerns a missing sleeve-link, and the clairvoyante 
appears to have described how a child had taken 
it some days previously, and then to have followed 
this child’s actions in removing it from one place 
to another—events closely connected with the 
object of the search and only a few days old. There 
is nothing in this to parallel the references to 
memories of many years ago such as have been 
given with several book tests. 

Mrs, Leonard has recounted one experience of 
what seemed to be clairvoyant travel. It came 
without being sought, was clearly remembered, and 
proved to have been a glimpse of what was actually 
taking place elsewhere. 

With creditably attested instances of ‘ travelling 
clairvoyance’ before us, and learning that Mrs, 
Leonard has at least on one occasion had a similar 
experience when she was apparently not in trance, 
we are logically compelled to inquire whether it 
might be possible for Mrs, Leonard to have visited 
her sitters’ homes clairvoyantly and culled informa- 
tion from their books. 

The first difficulty in accepting this supposition 
is not insurmountable; it relates to the fact that on 
every occasion known to me the book tests have 
been selected from closed volumes, and not from 
books left open at the page from which tests were 
chosen. Whoever searched for the appropriate 
passages did so while the books were standing 
in their shelves. Is it possible that these books 


78 





to the Medium’s Super-normal Powers ? 
| P 


were read while closed and the page consequently 
in darkness ? 


2 AND 3 


Ability to extract the general meaning from printed 
pages in distant houses. 

And to do this despite the fact that the books 
concerned are not open at the time. 

In Mrs. Sidgwick’s above-mentioned paper on 
Clairvoyance (Proc. S.P.R., Vol. VII. pp. 366, 
368-9), there is recorded an incident of peculiar 
interest in this connection. The percipient during 
“excursive clairvoyance’ was with some difficulty 
successful in deciphering upon a corner house the 
name of a street where was then happening an 
event which he described. The locality ‘seen’ 
was more than seventy miles distant, but the name 
Skomagerstrede and other details were subse- 
quently found to have been correct. As none of 
this information was within reach of the auditors, 
it looks like an instance of reading at a distance. 

Sir William Barrett, F.R.S., in his book, Psychical 
Research} entitles a chapter, ‘Super-normal Per- 
ception; Seeing without Eyes,’ and concludes that 
the reputed evidence on behalf of ‘travelling 
clairvoyance’ is more widespread and more ancient 
than that for telepathy. After discussing the 
problem presented by the ‘ Divining—or Dowsing- 
Rod,’ he says:— 


1 Published by Williams & Norgate in the Home University 
Library. 
79 


Can Book Tests be attributed 


(P. 184).—‘ There is, therefore, very strong 
presumptive evidence that a good dowser is 
one who possesses a super-normal perceptive 
power, seeing, as it were, without eyes. 
Like other super-normal faculties it resides 
in the subliminal self, and usually reveals 
itself through some involuntary muscular 
action. Possibly a like faculty of discern- 
ment beyond the power of vision may 
exist in certain animals and birds, and 
afford an explanation of the mystery of 
many otherwise inexplicable cases of homing 
and migratory instincts.’ 


His comprehensive Report upon Dowsing (Proc. 
S.P.R., Vol. XV.), concludes with the statement :— 


(P. 314).—' This subconscious perceptive power, 
commonly called ‘ clairvoyance,’ may pro- 
visionally be taken as the explanation of 
those successes of the dowser which are 
inexplicable on any grounds at present 
known to science.’ 


. The Report has also an Appendix, entitled, 
‘Evidence of Clairvoyance in Dowsers,’ which is 
pertinent to our inquiry. 

From the early days of mesmeric and hypnotic 
experiment it has been claimed that, under certain 
conditions, reading is possible without the use of 
eyes. Sir William Barrett, in the above, makes 
the following reference to a Report published in 


the year 1831:— 
80 





to the Medium’s Super-normal Powers ? 


(P. 309).—* Those who on a priori grounds deny 
the possibility of any such transcendental 
perceptive power should read the conclu- 
sions unanimously arrived at by the nine 
distinguished members of the French Royal 
Academy of Medicine, who were appointed 
by the Academy to report on mesmeric 
phenomena. After five years’ investigation 
this Committee presented their lengthy 
Report to the Academy in June, 1831. 
They state they began the inquiry with 
“inexperience, impatience, and distrust,” 
which at first militated against them. Ulti- 
mately, after the most rigorous tests, they 
“conclude with certainty ” that the faculty 
which has been designated clairvoyance 
does really exist in certain subjects in the 
mesmeric state.’ 


The book referred to is Report of the Experiments 
on Animal Magnetism made by a Committee of the 
Medical Section of the French Royal Academy of 
Sctences ; read at the meetings of 21st and 28th of 
Fune, 18312 


This Committee states (p. 198):— 


‘We have seen two somnambulists who dis- 
tinguished, with their eyes closed, the 
objects which were placed before them; 
they mentioned the colour and the value 
of cards, without touching them; they read 


1 Translated by J. C. Colquhoun, Esq. Published by Robert 
Cadell, Edinburgh, 1833. 


81 


Can Book Tests be attributed 


words traced with the hand, as also some 
lines of books opened at random. ‘This 
phenomenon took place even when the 
eyelids were kept exactly closed with the 
HTErs yt Ni, 

‘Signed by Bourdois de la Motte, President; 
Fouquier, Gueneau de Mussy, Guersent, 
Flussons (itary) eps [ey aerovy nye 
Thillaye.’ 


In the Appendix of the same book is an account 
of experiments communicated originally by M. 
Despine, then Principal Physician to the establish- 
ment at Aix (p. 223-4):— 


‘Not only did our patient hear with the palm 
of the hand, but we saw her read without 
the assistance of the eyes, by means of the 
extremities of the fingers alone, which she 
moved with rapidity above the page she 
wished to read, and without touching it, 
as if to multiply the sentient surfaces;— 
she read, I say, a whole page of Madame 
Montolieu’s romance, entitled Les Chateaux 
en Suisse. \n the page there were three 
proper names, of which she probably had 
never heard. . . . During all the experi- 
ments, a screen of thick pasteboard inter- 
cepted, in the strictest manner, every visual 
ray which might otherwise have reached 
her eyes.’ 


Again from the same Appendix (p. 224):— 
82 


to the Medium’s Super-normal Powers ? 


“Doctor Delpit, in a curious memoir on two 
nervous affections, inserted in the Szb/otheque 
Medicale, has recorded a case very similar 
to that observed by Dr. Despine. 

‘“ One of the patients read very distinctly 
when her eyes were entirely closed to the 
light, by conducting her fingers over the 
letters. I made her read in this way, 
whether by daylight or in the most pro- 
found darkness, printed characters, by open- 
ing the first book which came to my hand. 
... Was it the sense of touch which 
supplied that of sight? I know not; but 
I affirm that she read quite fluently by 
conducting her fingers along the letters.” ’ 


Other instances of seeing without eyes are found 
in a well-attested book published in 1876, entitled, 
X+Y=Z, which is favourably alluded to and 
drawn upon for illustrations by both Myers and 
Barrett (see Human Personality, Vol. I1., pp. 217, 
562. Psychical Research, p. 161). 

Turning to recent records we may note the 
following :— 

The Rector of the Dijon Academy, M. Emile 
Boirac, in his book Psychic Science* (pp. 265-8), 
describes how a man with whom he experimented 
was able, when under hypnotism, to read correctly 
by passing his finger tips over the paper while his 
eyes remained securely bandaged. The impression 
received by the hypnotised man was not at first 


1 English translation. Published by Rider & Son, 1918. 
83 


Can Book Tests be attributed 


that of sight, but rather of finding in his mind the 
impression that the words ought to be this or that. 
Later, however, this impression passed into some- 
thing closely analogous to sight, although the 
subject asserted that he was neither reading nor 
seeing, but somehow divining by a kind of mental 
intuition, yet the result was exactly the same as if 
he had seen with his eyes. 

On page 272 M. Boirac describes a further 
experiment, in which the subject succeeded in 
reading in the dark some writing of which those 
in the room were ignorant, and which, therefore, 
could not have been passed into his mind tele- 
pathically from those around him. 

Pages 271-4'give an account of experiments with 
the same person, which showed that he was not 
dependent upon actual touch, but could read equally 
well if M. Boirac’s fingers touched the page, while 
he, z.e. the hypnotised man, grasped Boirac, whose 
eyes remained closed meanwhile, by the elbow. 
This was in some sense reading in the dark, and at 
a short distance, but depended upon a line of 
contact, which was in this case M. Boirac’s body. 

Can we venture to suppose a great extension of 
this faculty in Mrs. Leonard, and picture her as 
able to travel clairvoyantly along a line of contact 
provided by the sitter’s close connection with 
the room in which his books are found? Can we 
suppose that, in her case, the power of reading in 
the dark, and at the other end of this hypothetical 
line of contact, is sufficiently heightened to enable 
her to peruse at will books standing in their shelves ? 


84 


to the Medium’s Super-normal Powers ? 


In the experiments of M. Boirac the book was 
open; can closed books be read ? 

Personally I have had no opportunity for 
observing this type of clairvoyance, under either 
normal or hypnotic conditions. But it is un- 
necessary for the purposes of our argument that 
we should register any opinion as to the accuracy 
or otherwise of such records; it will suffice for the 
moment that we imagine some such faculties to 
exist, and then consider whether their possession 
by Mrs, Leonard would account for the book test 
phenomenon as we have seen it. 

Before trying to meet this question, it is well 
to realise that, in case we find that these powers 
would sufficiently account for Mrs, Leonard’s 
book tests, we do not thereby disprove the assertion 
that they are the result of spirit agency. It would 
be exceedingly difficult to disprove the presence and 
assistance of spirit helpers in cases of so called 
‘reading clairvoyance.” And even were it possible 
to prove that a sensitive had accomplished such 
reading unaided, we may reasonably suppose that 
a spirit operator would possess similar powers in 
an even higher degree. Indeed there are cases 
on record which seem to establish this, notably 
those observed by Sir William Crookes and Stainton 
Moses, which are recorded in Appendix A. 

Thus, even should we decide that Mrs. Leonard 
might possibly read the books, we have not proved 
that a spirit did not actually do the reading. 

Yet we should in some measure be advanced in 
our inquiry could we ascertain that the feat was 


85 


Can Book Tests be attributed 


anywhere within human limits to accomplish. And 
so we will assume for the moment that our medium 
can not only travel clairvoyantly, but on arrival at 
her destination can, like Boirac’s subject under 
hypnotism, read in the dark, which of course it 
would be necessary to do in order to get at the 
sense of closed books. 

At once we are brought up against the puzzling 
fact that whereas Boirac’s subject and other clair- 
voyants are said to have read verbatim, our book 
messages give every sign of wot having been so 
read. Could the page be clearly seen, one would 
certainly expect its number to be given always as 
printed, in which case we should often have been 
saved the necessity of counting from the commence- 
ment of the reading matter. Why should the 
communicator laboriously estimate the number of 
the page if it could be clearly read by clairvoyant — 
vision ? 

One of the complaints of critics has been that 
only the gist of the passage is given, sometimes 
only an allusive reference to its general tenour, 
instead of straight forward quotation. It has been 
rare indeed to receive the statement that a definite 
and precise word would be found on the page 
designated, and never, so far as I am aware, has au 
exact quotation been given. We even seem to see in 
this inability to read the actual words, of which the 
general import is. however, discerned, an instance 
in which a spirit communicator is at a disadvantage 
as compared with a human clairvoyant reader. 

A more serious objection appears when we ask 


to the Medium’s Super-normal Powers ? 


whether the faculties which, for the sake of our 
argument, we have supposed Mrs. Leonard to 
possess, would suffice to account for the success 
recorded in obtaining book tests from that room 
in Mr. Bird’s house (see Chapter VII), which I 
had never seen, and about the position of which, 
as well as of the shelf selected by Mr. Bird for the 
experiment, I had only verbal descriptions. In 
trying to transmit these directions to the unseen 
communicator, was I actually informing Mrs. 
Leonard, either the normal or the subliminal 
Mrs. Leonard, who was forty miles distant at the 
time? ‘There was no apparent clue or connecting 
link by which Mrs. Leonard’s clairvoyant vision 
could have been guided to this particular room 
and shelf. 

Leaving unsolved these three inconsistences 
with our suggested hypothesis, let us pass on to 
the question of the ‘personal’ book messages, and 
see if it is possible to conceive these being obtained 
by Mrs. Leonard herself. Their unique feature 
consists in a linking of the passages in the book 
with some event, remote or recent, in the life of the 
sitter or his home circle. 


4 


Ability to obtain knowledge of happenings in the 
sitter’s home and private life relating both to the present 
and to the distant past. 

If these ‘personal’ book messages are com- 
posed by Mrs, Leonard, we at once add to her 


87 


Can Book Tests be attributed 


already considerable list of assumed powers ; for 
she must be able to obtain information from her 
sitter’s house, and also from his memories of long 
ago. 

It may be granted that a clairvoyance which 
enabled her to obtain passages from our books 
would also enable her to notice happenings in our 
house; but where events of distant date are men- 
tioned in conjunction with book-passages, it seems — 
necessary to suppose that she has explored our 
memories to discover them. And if sor Well, 
we are faced by the further necessity of supposing 
in her the existence of something more, viz.:— 


5 


An Intelligence which knows how to select from 
among our awe of memories the suitable items for 
association with the book-passage, or conversely, of 
finding a suitable passage for the particular memory 
fished from the deeps of our mind. 

The memories employed are in most instances 
clear-cut and exact, and they are ingeniously 
brought into association with the text. How? 

If such a power of fishing in two unknown seas, 
and being able to place the separate catches in 
appropriate pairs—one from our mind with one 
from our books—if such a power were proved to 
exist in a medium, we might reasonably regard it 
as an alternative explanation of the phenomena of 


book tests. I say alternative, because as previously 
88 


to the Medium’s Super-normal Powers ? 


remarked, it must not be overlooked that evex were 
human faculties found equal to the task, this would 
not disprove the spirit origin of the messages. 
At best we should have shown that, under favour- 
able circumstances, a human being could do what, 
presumably, was equally within the range of a 
spirit to accomplish. But in that event the onus 
of proof would obviously be thrown upon those 
who asserted the spirit origin of these book tests, 
and we should be obliged to offer other evidence 
than book tests which, on our imaginary assumptions, 
we are supposing might be accounted for by a rare 
combination of human powers. 

Such further evidence is already to hand in the 
phenomena called ‘Newspaper tests,’ which have 
appeared subsequently to the book tests, and of 
which the latter portion of this volume treats. But 
while reinforcement of proof is always desirable 
for important truths, I venture to think that a 
study of the above argument will make unavoidable 
the conclusion that there is no justification for 
suggesting that we have glimpsed any known human 
powers whereby we may account for book tests 
such as are here recorded. 


E.H.S. 89 H 


CHAPTER Xs 
INDICATIONS OF IDENTITY 


Tue assurance that the communicator is my father 
rests upon a mass of evidence to which book tests 
have contributed but a minute proportion. Yet it 
may be convenient to gather together in this chapter 
such stray items as book tests afford. 

Readers will have noticed the hints of identity 
contained in the references to Toddington (see 
Chapter ITI).’ 

Such hints receive further support when we 
consider the character of the tests purporting to be 
given by my father. No fewer than twenty related 
accurately to circumstances of my life. Others, to 
the number of ten, related to matters in my father’s 
life. One would have difficulty in imagining these 
to have been the work of a stranger. 

In many instances the tests reveal a_theo- 
logical and religious bent of mind. This is not 
‘wholly explained by the fact that the books 
operated upon were in the library of a minister; 
for whereas in my study there are twenty-six 
bookshelves, only eight of these contain Biblical, 
religious, and sermonic literature, yet it is from 
these shelves that the great majority of tests were 
taken. } 

Among books which came to me from my 


go 





Indications of Identity 


father’s library are four volumes of Pressensé’s 
Early Years of Christianity; from these no fewer 
than fifteen tests were given, thirteen of them being 
from one volume. From no other book were so 
many tests given. Including these, there were 
altogether twenty-eight tests from books on reli- 
gious history, and only nine from secular histories. 
From Biblical Commentaries, ten; from books 
on religious origins and sociology, fourteen; while 
from books on Biblical studies, religious essays, 
sermons and devotional literature there were no 
fewer than fifty-eight, not including references to 
titles. Thus out of a total of 209 references, not 
including title tests or the experiments asked for 
by us, no fewer than 110 were selected from 
books dealing with some phase of religion. This 
indication of my communicator’s trend of mind 
is not without its significance. 

From my numerous scientific volumes only two 
tests were given; my father used to evince but 
slight interest in such studies. I have seven shelves 
containing books which I especially value, and to 
which I frequently refer, yet never once has a test 
been taken from these. And I incline to think 
that a possible reason may be that these books are 
upon subjects which did not appeal to my father 
during his earth life. Nor did the removing of 
theological books from one part of the room to 


1Sir William Barrett asked me to see if this volume contained 
signs that it had been read by my father. He rarely marked his 
books, and there are no marks in this volume, but in one of the 
four he wrote an INDEX, which proves that he used them for 
reference, 
gol 


Indications of Identity 


another make any difference to my communicator; 
he still selected from among them. 

Once, upon returning from a holiday, during 
which my study had been cleaned, the book test 
was prefaced by this inquiry:— 


‘Has any one disturbed your study? He 
thinks they have. ‘The books, although upon 
the same shelves as before, are all in different 
positions.’ 


I found this to be correct. All had been taken 
out for dusting, and although each shelf contained 
the same books as before, their order was com- 
pletely disarranged. On several other occasions 
I have purposely mingled different sections of the 
library, so that books upon various subjects stood 
side by side. It made no apparent difference to 
the accuracy of the tests, nor did it persuade my 
communicator to relinquish his evident preference 
for sermonic literature and theology. 

I am a lover of poetry, and should have been 
inclined to expect that such tests as these would 
be best discovered among the poets; but my father 
read little poetry, and always found it difficult to 
commit passages to memory. Now it is notice- 
able that he has consistently avoided my fifty-five 
volumes of poetry, and, with the exception of one 
slight reference to Milton, has given no tests from 
them, save from three volumes of Dante, which 
work he always treasured on account of its having 
been translated by his father. From those volumes 


Q2 


Indications of Identity 


of Dante were given eight tests. On another 
occasion he indicated the position of other of 
his father’s writings which stood upon my 
shelves. 

Such facts tend towards indication of my com- 
municator’s identity, a matter more particularly 
discussed in the chapters on newspaper tests. 


ConcLusions DRAWN FROM THE TESTS 


It is clear that whoever obtained these tests did 
not search the books in the normal manner; for 
we should have quoted passages verbatim, and 
our references would have been direct and exact. 
Picture some one blindfolded, who feels a manu- 
script for psychometric! readings. On placing it 
to the forehead he might obtain ideas, even a crowd 
of them, and would proceed to mention some of 
the strongest. If his gift were of a clairvoyant 
type, he might give correctly some names and 
actual words, but for the most part would content 
himself with mentioning ideas, without stating too 
exactly how they appeared in the manuscript. On 
a second trial he might name an entirely different 
set of ideas without repeating any of the former. 
For, unless his clairvoyant powers were unusually 
acute, he could but give what came to him at 
the moment, being unable to see all its parts at 
will. 

A study of numerous book tests leads to the 


1 For note on Psychometry, see Chapter XIX (pp. 196-200). 
93 


Indications of Identity 


conclusion that they are based upon ideas per- 
ceived, rather than on words visualised. 

The account given by my communicator sup- 
ports this conclusion. It may be summarised 
thus,—At the date of these tests he was able to see 
actual words now and again only, as if by a flash of 
clairvoyant power in its initial stage. He noted 
each idea which struck him strongly, and calculated 
the number of the page from which it came. He 
found that he could not with certainty extract 
many ideas from any one page, but must be content 
to take what came, using or discarding it as seemed 
wisest. 

My conclusion is that the book tests were obtained 
by a spirit who gleaned impressions psychometrically 
and obtained an exact glimpse now and again by 
clairvoyance. ‘This seems to explain the indefinite 
nature of the allusions. 

But his way of dealing with the ideas obtained 
offers a further subject for study; for where they 
bring to him apposite recollections from his earth 
life he expresses these in a manner giving a clue to 
his identity. \t has been queried if book tests may 
not be the result of a peculiar power of clairvoyance 
in Mrs, Leonard. But assuming for a moment 
an hypothesis so slender, although it might serve 
to suggest how knowledge from books in distant 
places had been obtained, we are still left with no 
idea as to how such knowledge is given to sitters 
in a form inextricably interwoven with memories 
of their departed friends, the professed communi- 
cators. In the reference to ‘twenty years before 


94 


Indications of Identity 
he passed on’ (see Chapter VI, p. 53), there was 


no meaning for me until I had carefully calculated 
the years, and thought over my father’s whereabouts 
and surroundings at that period. Now this inter- 
weaving of tests with my father’s memories 1s a 
persistent feature of these communications, and has 
long since satisfied me as to the identity of the 
communicator with my father. Here, for example, 
is a test received at 3.20 p.m. on January 16th, 
1920, when I was asked to examine the Daily 
Telegraph for the following day, and to notice on 
the first page, near the top of the second column, 
the name of the place where I was born. 


‘He is not sure if it is given as a place 
name, but the name is there.’ 


Next day, four lines from the top of that 
column, was the following advertisement in which 
‘Victoria’ might be either a personal or a place 
name. Victoria.—Send by return. Most anxious 
second message. 1 had always thought of my 
birthplace as Taunton, never as Victoria, but 
recollected having heard the latter name used in 
connection with Taunton. So I wrote to my mother 
asking for particulars. She replied that at the time 
of my birth they were living close by the Wesleyan 
church of which father had charge in Taunton, 
that it was always called Victoria, to distinguish it 
from the larger church at the farther end of the 
town; and she added finally that his church 
was situated in Victoria Street, and that the house 


95 


Indications of Identity 


where I was born was in Victoria Terrace. Com- 
paratively few persons now living would remember 
that I was born at Taunton, fewer still would be 
aware that I was born at Victoria. Yet this is just 
the kind of fact which my father could not possibly 
forget. I may add that this advertisement had not 
appeared in the Te/egraph of the previous day. 


CHAPTER XI 
SUMMARY OF RESULTS 


At this point it may be interesting to consider 
figures relating to the book tests received during 
two years, and to view the result as a whole. Those 
satisfactorily verified are listed as ‘ Good,’ while a 
considerable number, which were too vague to be 
considered successful, yet too nearly approaching 
accuracy to be listed as ‘ Failures,’ are termed 
“Indefinite.” A distinction seems necessary be- 
tween tests given spontaneously and those which 
I asked for under special conditions of my own 
devising. Also the date, January roth, 1919, 
must be noted; as it was then, so it was claimed, 
there commenced an attempt to obtain some of 
the results by ‘a sort of clairvoyance for earthly 
objects,’ instead of relying as previously upon 
‘sensing.’ Again, at a sitting a few weeks later, it 
was remarked: ‘ In giving this book test, he wishes 
to say that he is working on different lines now, 
using new methods, and seeing what he can do.’ 
It will be noted how inferior were the results 
obtained by the clairvoyant method. From the 
fact of its having been adopted and persisted in 
one may suppose that the communicator considered 
it was a method which, when perfected, would 
enable him to give superior evidence. He made it 
clear that this was an experiment on his part. 


97 


Summary of Results 


Therefore many of the mistakes in obtaining 
information, subsequent to the use of this ‘ clair- 
voyance,’ may be regarded in the light of blunders 
made by a novice when beginning to exercise a 
new faculty. My communicator may have con- 
sidered that, by January, 1919, he had sufficiently 
demonstrated his power of obtaining information 
from books, whether these were upon my shelves 
or elsewhere. The ‘ Newspaper tests,’ which com- 
menced in the autumn of 1919, would seem to be 
the justification of the clairvoyant method; for 
in these he often specifically mentions having 
‘seen’ a word, although from the mingled success 
and failure one may argue that this clairvoyance 
was not yet sufficiently under control to ensure that 
its results should be uniformly correct. 
The following table summarises the results:— 


First Period. Good. Indefinite. Failure. Total. 
Book tests given 

spontaneously eM woe U8) L647 LEG 

1 Title tests 46 m O 49 
Book test experi- 

ments asked for PM AM 5 45 


Second Period. 


Book tests given 


spontaneously 26 7 20 53 

1 Title tests 15 I 5 21 
Book test experi- 

ments asked for 7 3 14 24 





Totals forthetwoyears 242 46 60 348 
1See Appendix B. 


98 


Summary of Results 


a 


While, however, it is interesting to know the 
proportion of success to failure, it is upon the 
character of the successes that final opinion must be 
based. For when sufficient evidence has been 
given to demonstrate the action of something 
beyond human powers, it is not vital to the investi- 
gation to know whether this ability is infallible 
in operation, nor even if it may be capable of 
frequent exercise. Admitting that information 
has, upon any single occasion, been obtained from 
books by other means than those known to men, 
we are faced by a fact which requires not only to 
be explained, but also to be fitted into its place with 
the other facts. 


THe ARGUMENT SUMMARISED 


Through the lips of a sensitive in trance have 
been given such references to books as indicated 
their having been scrutinised by an intelligence. 
The primary purpose of these efforts was said to 
be demonstration that spirit people were able to 
do that for which telepathy from human minds 
could not account, a demonstration calculated to 
clarify the evidence already existing for the author- 
ship of their communications. (See Chapters 
I-IV.) 

These book tests are a phenomenon the origin 
of which demands explanation. What are the 


1See the reference in Sir William Barrett’s Introduction to the 
use, by Prof. Wm. James, of ‘the white crow’ argument. 


99 


Summary of Results 


possible alternatives to spirit action? They are 
Chance Coincidence, Collusion and Trickery, Tele- 
pathy, or Super-normal Faculties exerted by the 
medium. : 

In view of the number, quality, and ingenuity 
of correct test-messages received during the space 
of two years, Chance Coincidence would appear 
highly improbable. Prolonged experimental com- 
parison (such as is within the power of any one 
having leisure and access to a library) yields 
results so conspicuously inferior as to afford over- 
whelming presumptive evidence against Chance 
being responsible for more than a_ negligible 
fraction of the tests described in this book. (See 
Chapter V.) 

The numerical preponderance of success over 
failure also indicates a cause other than Chance. 

Collusion and Trickery, or indeed any normal 
means of acquiring the information, are shown 
to have played no part in the special tests 
obtained from the Sealed Packet. (See Chapter VI.) 

They are again ruled out, together with Tele- 
pathy, by the increasingly stringent tests imposed 
in connection with the Unseen Bookshelf, the 
batch of books chosen at random by a stranger, 
and, finally, by the unseen volumes secured in a 
Deed Box. The degree of success attained under 
these conditions excludes Collusion, Trickery, and 
Telepathy; clearly, then, book tests do not depend 
upon these, either singly or in combination. (See 
Chapters VII and VIII.) 

There are no known human faculties, normal or 

100 


Summary of Results 


subliminal, by which the medium could herself 
have achieved the results. Examination of this 
alternative, in the light of knowledge available 
up to date, offers no encouragement for supposing 
it a possible solution of the problem. (See 
Chapter IX.) 

The preferences revealed in selection of material 
for these messages show in what direction lay the 
tastes of the originating intelligence, and this is 
in harmony with other indications of his identity. 
(See Chapter X.) 

Since neither Collusion, Telepathy, Coincidence, 
nor known human faculties suffice to account for 
book tests, what alternative remains but to accept 
the explanation of the messages themselves, and 
conclude that the originating cause is a spirit? In 
this conclusion we are in agreement with many 
investigators in other departments of psychic 
research who, commencing with doubts, passed 
by logical compulsion to a belief in the reality of 
spirit communication. 

Attempts to discredit the bona fides of Mrs. 
Leonard would leave the argument untouched, 
since it stands unassailably upon the actual words 
uttered by her and recorded by me at the time. 
In weighing this class of evidence, it is obvious 
that one has to consider what was spoken, itre- 
spective of the speaker or of prejudices relating 
to questions of mediumship and methods of 
research. 

It has occasionally happened, when I had out- 
lined the evidence from book tests before persons 

IOI 


Summary of Results 


who were curious but unconvinced, that they have 
replied in effect, ‘ Well, we cannot explain the 
_ messages, but it seems to us that if a spirit could 
speak he would not wish to trouble about such 
trifles. Surely he would have greater things to 
say. This is all too trivial to be what you 
suppose.’ 

Lest I should by omission have conveyed an 
impression that the material displayed forms a 
chief portion of my father’s conversation, I hasten 
to correct the misapprehension. Evidences have 
but a minor share in our talks, and we regard them 
rather in the light of necessary business to which 
we turn first after our greeting, and get it finished 
as soon as is consistent with its effective discharge. 
Yet it requires but small intelligence to perceive 
what added value these tests contribute to the 
residue of my communicator’s remarks; for he 
touches upon many things which, in the nature of 
the case, are far beyond my power to verify—occu- 
pations in spirit life, its added powers of mind and 
body, the nature of the new body itself, first impres- 
sions on arrival, and the gradual enlargement of 
experience, the old friends met in new surroundings, 
their relation to the earth on the one hand and the 
future prospect on the other, their more immediate 
consciousness of God... . 

Had an account of these matters been addressed 
to me by an unknown intelligence, even though 
claiming to come from spirit realms, I should have 
been in grave uncertainty as to the value one 
was justified in attaching to the statements. But 

102 





Summary of Results 


consider how different is the actual position. Each 
interview affords a portion of evidential matter, 
and when, subsequent to the sitting, this is 
discovered to be for the more part accurate, one 
may presume that the unverifiable portions of the 
communications are, broadly speaking, accurate 
also, since they obviously proceed from the same 
mind. The contents of this book display but a 
strand or two of the substantial line of evidence 
which runs through all my father’s conversations. 
He warns me, and indeed it is common knowledge, 
that the mind of the medium must necessarily 
exert some influence, adding, as it were, to the 
general colour scheme a shade or two of its own, 
as well as influencing the form of words in which 
his thought finds expression. 

It is a wonderful achievement when an ascended 
spirit, one whose body we saw laid in the grave 
long years ago, so far succeeds in overcoming 
the ‘tenfold-complicated change’ of our respective 
conditions as to engage in familiar converse. Can 
we be surprised if limitations and imperfections 
should appear in the performance? That it 
should be done in any degree, however imperfectly, 
is the surpassing wonder of all. That the difh- 
culties and limitations of communication will be 
yet further lessened by painstaking effort on both 
sides is my hope and expectation; that they should 
be wholly overcome I do not anticipate, at least 
for so long as they may serve some providential 
purpose. 

The appended book test has been reserved for 

103 


Summary of Results 


this place where, before we turn to another phase 
of the subject, it may serve to display in unison my 
father’s views and mine. 


Cocito Erco Sum 


The exact section of my library having been 
described, Feda proceeded :-— 


‘ The shelf below the top, ninth book from 
the left; on page 24 and about half-way 
down are a few words suggesting something your 
father hopes you think about his talks with you 
in these sittings.’ 


This book proved to be Personality, by Prof. 
Momerie, and page 24 introduces a new chapter 
commencing half-way down. ‘The position of the 
words was thus precisely indicated. The first 
lines were, ‘ Cogito ergo sum,’ which the author 
proceeds to translate freely as follows: ‘Jz is 
necessary that I who think should be somewhat. In 
other words, thought is inconceivable without a thinker; 
the existence of my thought ts inconcetvable without the 
existence of myself to think it.’ Nothing could more 
aptly sum up my opinion. The conversations 
through Feda exhibit thought based on my father’s 
earth recollections interwoven with newly acquired 
information in a manner evidencing present zuze//1- 
gence. It is he himself; and suggestions that he 
is being impersonated by Feda or by Mrs. Leonard 

104 





Summary of Results 


would fail to meet the facts which have to be accounted 
for. 


‘Far off thou art, but ever nigh; 
I have thee still, and I rejoice; 
I prosper, circled with thy voice; 
I shall not lose thee tho’ I die. 
Trnnyson’s Jn Memoriam. 


E.H.S. 105 1 


CHAPTER XII 
A FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF BOOK TESTS 


Being an account of a series of test-messages 
relating to facts and places unknown to me. 
Transmitted for the late Hon. Edward 
Wyndham Tennant. 


Tue incidents recorded in this chapter will be 
already familiar to readers of The Earthen Vessel. 
I avail myself of Lady Glenconner’s permission 
to use them here, as they afford confirmation of 
the foregoing conclusions—conclusions which were 
based on other facts. In this series of messages 
there was even less scope for telepathy from minds 
on earth. 


‘Tue Ecctiestasticus Test 


A few days before a sitting with Mrs, Leonard in 
May, 1918, | had heard the Rev. F. Fielding-Ould 
lecture at Lady Glenconner’s house upon ‘ The 
Psychic Experiences of the Saints in the Christian 
Church.’ Early in the sitting references were 
made to this lecture, after which Feda proceeded 
to say:— 

106 





A Further Development of Book Tests 


‘In your study, close to the door and on 
the lowest shelf behind the door, your books 
have dark bindings. ‘Take the fourth from 
the left and turn to page 21. There see what 
the lecturer you heard recently touched upon. 
It is near the top of the page.’ 


I subsequently found that the upper part of the 
indicated page contained references to the Immor- 
tality of the Soul, and kindred doctrines which were 
quite relevant to the lecture. The book was Vol. II 
of Encyclopedia Biblica, the binding of which 1s 
dark green. Both assertions were thus found to 
be correct. The test continued :—- 


‘All around this page, before and after, 
there is strong bearing upon certain conditions 
of the house where you heard that lecture. 
If you do not understand fully, it would be 
worth while communicating with the people 
there; this will be a double test, because 
what he says now about the house and people 
is distinct from the previous test. There is 
something about the whole book connected 
with them. ‘Tell them the title, the subject, 
and date of publication. A strong connection 
with them exists, a reason for linking it to 
them.’ 


The topic of this and several preceding pages 
proved to be the Book of Ecclesiasticus. 

From Lady Glenconner’s reply I learnt the 
nature of the family interest in this book. From 
it had already been selected the quotation which 
was to close the Introduction to the Memoir of 

107 


A Further Development of Book Tests 


her son, a work upon which his mother was then 
engaged, and this verse, so perfectly appropriate, 
had been much in her mind :— 

‘ There be of them that have left a name behind them, 
that their praise might be recorded.’—Kcclesiasticus 
xliv, 8 

In her recent book, The Earthen Vessel, Lady 
Glenconner says that this verse and chapter were 
well known to her son 1n his earth life, and that, 
in a recent dream, she had conversed with him 
and especially alluded to this text; thus the book 
test message provided an endorsement of her 
dream. 

At a subsequent sitting I asked Feda if Mr, 
Tennant, called Bim by his family, had arranged 
this test? She said, “Bim chose the topic and 
your father found it in the book.’ It is certainly 
a remarkable fact that, among all the volumes in 
our house, one of the very few which mention 
Ecclesiasticus should have been singled out; and 
further, that amidst its 700 pages there should 
have been chosen, not merely one out of the 
few dealing with this subject, but, among those 
few, the particular page which best fulfilled the 
test. The directions given had been so precise 
as to include in their scope a paragraph mega 
Chapter XLIV. 

I was entirely unaware, until receiving Lady 
Glenconner’s reply, that she had any interest in the 
passage selected, and it is important to record here 
that neither Lady Glenconner nor Mrs. Leonard 
have ever been in our house. 

108 


A Further Development of Book Tests 


AT THE House IN SCOTLAND 


On August 22nd, 1918, I was asked to transmit 
the following :— 


‘Here is another message for them, and 
this time the book is in Scotland. It will be 
a good test, since neither you nor this medium 
have been to the place; so it 1s evident that 
anything in the nature of conniving, or aiding 
and abetting, is out of the question! He 
thought Scotland would be good because of 
being at a greater distance. The room is 
upon what one can only call the ground floor 
of their Scottish house, a room on the right, 
and not quite square. As you enter the room, 
the books are on the wall to the right at a 
height of three to three and a half feet from 
the ground. 

“Let them take the fourth volume on the 
left and open it at page 74; on that page is 
a passage Bim has chosen as his message.’ 


For a full account of these verifications see 
pp. 91-7 of The Earthen Vessel, but the following 
items will give some idea of their cogency. 

The above passage proved to contain allusion 
to Winchester, where Bim had been at school. It 
also introduced an unusual phrase, ‘ living furni- 
ture,’ which was one of Bim’s well-recognised 
terms, using the word ‘furniture’ as it is here 
used, signifying ‘people.’ It also described a 
return to haunts of youth and thoughts of bygone 

109 


A Further Development af Book Tests 


days, which would inevitably apply to Bim when 
looking out this test in his old home. 


* At the beginning of the book, on the first 
page, there is a message for his mother.’ 


The passage there found reads as follows: * It 
was a work worthy undertaking, for betwixt the 
two there was so mutual a knowledge and such 
friendship, contracted in his youth, as nothing but 
Death could force a separation; and though their 
bodies were divided, their affections were not, for 
Love followed the friend’s fame beyond Death, 
and the forgetful grave. I have heard Divines 
say that those virtues that were but sparks upon 
Earth, become great and glorious flames in Heaven.’ 


* Also within a span, there is a book which 
—and not the title only, but the whole book 
—How shall one express it to them? ‘The 
anniversary of Bim’s death draws near, and 
this is something to comfort them. The book 
is a keynote to the life he gained by passing 
over. The book is full of things that the boy 
has attained to, realised, since passing over. 
It is but two or three weeks to the anniversary 
of his death; therefore this book is very 
suitable as a whole and not only because of 
its title.’ (Here I asked if this description 
would be sufficiently clear.) ‘They will 
have no difficulty in seeing what is meant.’ 


The book proved to be Dante’s Paradiso. 


Would it be possible to name another book so 
IIo 





A Further Development of Book Tests 


perfectly answering the description given in the 
message? 

I was also asked to send an assurance from Bim 
to his brothers of his continued interest in all their 
pursuits, and to ask that examination should be 
made of the last book on the same shelf as the 
foregoing; as he had noticed an apposite passage 
on its eighth page. 

The lines discovered on that page, as I subse- 
quently learnt, were as follows:— 


‘They shall not say I went with heavy heart; 
I love them all, but now I must depart 
As one who goes to try a Mystery... .’ 

“ And now tears are not mine; I have release 
From all the former and the latter pain; 
Like the mid-sea, I rock in boundless peace, 

Soothed by the charity of the deep sea rain.’ 


*O bronzen pines, evenings of gold and blue, 
Steep mellow slope, brimmed twilit pools below, 
Hushed trees, still vale dissolving in the dew... 


‘We have been happy... 
Happy now, I go.’ 


When asked if Bim were present and giving the 
message himself, Feda replied,— 


‘Bim is not here now, but sends his very 
best thanks, and says it has especially helped 
his father.’ 

III 


A Further Development of Book Tests 


Not knowing the address of their home in Scot- 
land, I sent a copy of the notes to Lady Glenconner 
at her London house. Some days later I received 
a telegram from Glen saying the book tests had 
been satisfactorily verified. 


AT THE Town HovuseE 


Extract from a sitting with Mrs. Leonard, 
January roth, 1919:— 


“A book test from Bim for his mother. It 
is in the drawing-room at No. 34. Books 
behind the door, but not the side close to 
the door. ‘Top shelf and eighth book from 
the left, page 6. On the lower part of the 
page find something which Bim has been 
able to do for his mother lately. Your father 
thinks the above will be good if verified; he 
himself has not the faintest idea about the 
actual facts, neither has this medium.’ 


A second test was added, but owing to the family 
being out of town at the time, the position of 
several books was changed before this portion 
could be verified. Lady Glenconner subsequently 
wrote, ‘I hasten to say that one of the tests has 
come rightly. It is the eighth book, counting from 
the left, top shelf of room side of bookcase. Page 
6, a page of contents, reads as follows :— 

‘ “Triumph. 

‘“ The Dead and Living meet. . . . The record 

12 


- 
ee ae _ 


iz a = > 


ee Oe Te 


A Further Development of Book Tests 


of one of the most wonderful and mysterious 
experiences.” ’ 


At Witsrorp Manor 


While sitting with Mrs, Leonard on May 2nd, 
1919, I was asked to pass on the following message 
from Bim to his mother :— 


‘Bim has a book test from Wilsford. It 
is not in Scotland this time, nor the town 
house. ‘They are going to Wilsford to-day.’ 


This was the first time I had heard of Wilsford, 
and, not knowing the address, posted my letter 
to the town house. 


* Bim’s test is in the study at Wilsford, to 
the right as one goes in. The shelf is about 
three feet up. Within a span of the third 
book from the left there is a title suggesting 
“tumbling down.” ’ 


This proved correct; close above the indicated 
book is a copy of Milton’s Paradise Lost, containing 
an illustration by Blake showing the ‘ Fall of 
Lucifer.’ 


‘In the third book from the left, page 29, 


there is a summary of events interesting to 
Bim.’ 


The book was found to be Vol. III of Shelley’s 
113 


AA Further Development of Book Tests 


Poetical Works, published by Chatto & Windus, 
1888. Page 29 was headed, ‘The Triumph of 
Life,’ and the applicable lines from this poem are 
given here. ‘They are apposite and beautiful. 


.; so on my sight 
Burst a new vision, never seen before ; 


And the fair shape waned in the coming light, 
As veil by veil the silent splendour drops 
From Lucifer, amid the chrysolite 


Of Sun-rise, e’er it tinge the mountain tops. 
And as the presence of that fairest planet ih 
Although unseen, is felt by one who hopes - 


That his day’s path may end as he began it 
In that star’s smile, whose light is like the scent 
Of a jonquil when evening breezes fan it, 


So knew I, in that Light’s severe excess 
The presence of that shape which on the stream 
Moved, as I moved along the wilderness 


Ne eee than a aay eben seat 
A igh ie heaven. meee 
The new Vision, Waa 

. and the cold bright car 


With solemn speed and stunning music crost 
114 





A Further Development of Book Tesis 


The-forest, . . . from some dread War 
hr ataengeies returning. 


Behold a wonder worthy of the are 
Of one who from the lowest depths of hell, 
Through every Paradise, and through all glory 


Love led serene, azd who returned to tell 
. the wondrous story, 
How all things are transfigured except Love.’ 


(In this quotation the words deemed specially 
appropriate are italicised, and the omissions denoted 


by dotted lines.) 


The total number of references which I was 
asked to pass on to Lady Glenconner was nineteen. 
Few, if any, seem to have been entire failures, while 
no less than fifteen were found by Bim’s parents to 
be strikingly appropriate. 

115 


PART II 
NEWSPAPER TESTS 





CHAPTER XIII 
NEWSPAPER TESTS ILLUSTRATED 


WE now commence the study of something 
entirely new among evidences for human survival. 
As we proceed, it will be advisable to assure our- 
selves that the facts are neither to be explained by 
the reading-in of meanings not actually present, 
nor by chance applicability, nor by opportunities 
for trickery. Following a method similar to that 
pursued in discussing book tests, we shall discover 
indications of a clairvoyance and a prevision not 
attributable to the medium. 

On resuming sittings with Mrs. Leonard after a 
holiday interval in the early autumn of 1919, I 
was informed through Feda that a new type of 
test-message was about to be attempted. Its object 
was said to be the provision of evidence which 
would render untenable the supposition that infor- 
mation given at these sittings was limited to the 
stores of subconscious knowledge possessed by the 
medium or the sitter. 

The following pages place the reader in possession 
of material upon which to form an opinion as to 
the success of this new evidence. 

The idea is, in brief, to connect the communi- 
cator’s past memories, or present knowledge, with 
items which have not been made public, but which 

IIg 


Newspaper Tests Illustrated 


will be found in some publication almost imme- 
diately to appear. Until verifying the message 
by inspection of the paper designated the sitter 
has usually no idea of the form the verification will 
take. Two streams of knowledge are united in 
the experiment in a way that excludes the familiar 
suggestion of telepathic action between human 
minds. 

The name ‘Newspaper test’ has been chosen 
because the majority of the references have related 
to newspapers, although they have occasionally 
been selected at my request from unpublished 
magazines. ‘The greater number of those received 
by me have been chosen from the Times. 

On Friday, November 7th, 1919, I received for 
the third time a series of references to items which 
were to be looked for in the morrow’s Press. A 
copy of these references was posted that evening 
to the Hon. Secretary for Psychical Research. 
Since that date I have unfailingly followed the same 
procedure. These copies are retained by the 
Society, and afford evidence that the information 
they contain was given on the day previous to the 
issue of the paper to which they severally refer. 

We will first consider some comparatively simple 
examples selected from a sitting of December 19th, 
1919; these tests were written down by me at 
3.10 p.m. and were to be verified in the Times 
of the following day. 

Having been directed to the first page and 
“rather more than one-third down column three,’ 
I was asked to look to the left where, almost in a 

120 





Newspaper Tests IMustrated 


line with that spot, would appear my name and a 
little above it that of my wife. 

On examining that part of the Times next day, 
viz., December 20th, 1919, I saw our names 
within one inch of each other, my wife’s in column 
one, and my own name, Charles, in column two. 
Both are to the left of the spot named as guiding 
mark, but two inches below half-way down, which 
is somewhat lower than indicated. My wife’s 
name is represented in the paper by Clare, which 
is what I habitually call her, it being my favourite 
variant upon Clara, her true name. ‘ Clare’ appears 
just a fraction higher than ‘ Charles,’ and this 
agrees with the test description. 

The next assertion was rather curious, and 
indicated intimate knowledge:— 


‘Within an inch of those names you'll 
see your wife’s age.’ 


I discovered this just one inch and five-eighths 
above our names. The figure appearing there is 
s1, and would have been correct a fortnight earlier; 
but a birthday intervening had meanwhile changed 
the age to 52. 

A further test followed :— 


‘Close to half-way down column one is 
your father’s name, but as it is not uncommon, 
and people may say it is likely to occur by 
chance, he does not rest this test upon a single 
name, two of his are mentioned.’ 

E.H.S. 121 K 


Newspaper Tests IMustrated 


Two of his names appear in one notice, first 
Thomas, then two lines lower, John. ‘These are but 
three inches below the middle of column one. 

While the positions are not always given with 
microscopic accuracy, the above were sufficiently 
correct to enable the names to be easily identified. 
The five items were found within a space of less 
than three inches square, although in four different 
notices. This clustering in groups is a frequent 
feature of newspaper tests. 

The following examples include another test- 
cluster and an illustration of the intimate know- 
ledge of our house possessed by the communicator. 
The test-messages are placed between quotation 
marks, and following each is its verification as 
discovered in the Times for the next day. 

Date of sitting, November 26th, 1920, at 6.15 
pm. ‘The number of tests given for verification 
from the first page of the morrow’s Times was 
nine. Result: Correct 6; Inconclusive 1; Failure 2. 
A selection only is here shown. 


‘In column two, a little lower than half- 
way down, he thought he saw the name 
Bernard.’ 


It is lower than stated, and is the only appearance 


of this name in the column. 


“Very close thereto is his name John.’ 


It is within two inches of ‘ Bernard’ in the 
parallel column one. 
I22 








— 


eS et oe ae 


a ee Oe en” Oe oe ee 


. ge a 
5 Fatt Agi ie cat 


Newspaper Tests Illustrated 


‘Also an aunt on his side who is often 
with him. All three names are close together.’ 


Three lines above John is Marie; his sister was 
Mary. 

The above three names are all within a space 
measuring two by three inches. Such references 
to common names have slight evidential value in 
isolation, but, linked together as above they gain 
cumulative force. 


‘Near the top of column two is the name 
of a man whose works in life your father 
greatly admired. He was a writer, and you 
have more than one reminder of him among 
your books at home.’ 


Two inches down column two 1s, the late Thomas. 
The reference applies to my grandfather, whose 
books in my study had been previously alluded to 
in these tests. 


‘There was some uncertainty as to where 
exactly the following was to be placed, but 
you will find it somewhere in the top half 
of column two. It is the name of a lady, a 
relation, whose portrait you have at home in 
a conspicuous position. This portrait is not 
on a wall, but stands in its frame upon a 
piece of furniture, which Feda feels is made 
of very dark and highly polished wood, a 
fine wood and not like oak. Feda thinks the 
article it stands on is not close to the wall, 
but is pulled out a little; there are some bars 
upon it near the photograph, certainly two, 

123 


Newspaper Tests Illustrated 


and there may be more, but Feda is shown 
two of them. Also quite close to the photo- 
graph there is something white.’ 


The name of a sister-in-law, Emily, appears in 
the top half of column two. We keep her framed 
photograph upon a secretary of highly polished and 
very dark rosewood, having bars of the same material 
standing in relief against a curtain of light silk. 
Within three inches of this photograph I noticed 
a calendar with figures on a white ground, also 
within fifteen inches a letter-rack containing paper 
and envelopes; these sufficiently accounted for 
‘something white’ close to it. Each item of the 
test was correct, even to the position of the secretary, 
which stood crossways in a corner, one side being 
three, and the other fourteen, inches from the wall. 
There was an unexpected sequel to this test at the 
next sitting: Feda remarked that my father had 
noticed, in a room we often used, the face of a cat 
and ‘any one could pick it up’; also that he saw 
in the same room ‘ something like a snake.’ She 
added that this snake had to do with something 
we could see, and that connected with it was ‘a 
cover which could be lifted up.’ She was pro- 
ceeding to say that cat and snake had something to 
do with each other, when she was checked. and 
correcting herself, added that she was told to say 
that they were not connected, but were in the same 
place. As it seemed doubtful if we could trace 
these from the description, I inquired whether 
they were in a book. The reply was given very 
emphatically :— 

124 





Newspaper Tests IMustrated 


‘No, not in a book, but wpow something. 
They are in the same place, but not to do 
with each other, and certainly not connected 
with book tests.’ 


On reaching home my wife, who had accompanied 
me to the sitting, drew my attention to the secretary 
above mentioned. There, almost touching the 
framed portrait of her sister, stood a pictorial 
calendar showing a cat prominent in the foreground, 
while immediately in front of this was a Chinese 
stamp-box, its lid ornamented with a snake-like 
dragon in high relief. My wife had thought of 
this snake on the box as ‘a cover which could be 
lifted up,’ but had not recollected the cat until, 
while verifying the snake, the picture arrested her 
attention. ‘Any one could pick it up,’ as the 
calendar simply rests against the bars of the 
secretary. 

One may suppose that these objects had been 
noticed by our communicator while obtaining the 
photograph test for the previous sitting, and then 
either forgotten, or designedly held over for this 
occasion. Mrs. Leonard has never visited our 
house, and even had she done so it would remain 
to be explained how it was possible for her to 
connect this photograph with a name which was 
to appear in a certain place in the Times on the 
following day. 

The next illustrates an intermingling of failure 
and success. Date of sitting, May 7th, 1920, at 
6.20 p.m. 

This was one of several sittings specially arranged 

125 


Newspaper Tests Illustrated 


for a later hour than usual in order to discover if 
the tests would attain greater accuracy as regards 
position. We thought there would be less likeli- 
hood of the columns being rearranged after this 
hour, and the communicator said he would take a 
last glance at them immediately before the sitting 


began. 


The number of tests given for verification from 


the first page of the morrow’s Times was seven. 
Result: Correct 6; Failure +1. 


‘Look near the top of column two on the 
front page for reference to a neighbour living 
very close to you. Your father senses that 
there are two names together which would 
both refer to these neighbours. You will 
understand.’ 


Four inches from the top of column two appears 
Birds. A few doors from us reside our friends Mr. 
and Mrs. Bird. The name appears in conjunction 
with others in a way which seems to have suggested 
something which the communicator did not quite 
succeed in clearly expressing, but at least he was 
correct in saying there were two names together; 
the relevant words ran thus: Wood of ‘ Birds- 
grove.’ 


‘ Nearly half-way down column two is the 


name of a man at your Mission. But it 
struck your father that this name would also 
apply to some one whom he knew on earth 
years ago, although not to do with the same 
family. It reminds him of it.’ 

126 


ST: ee eT Lee pee fe ee ae eee Ie 








Newspaper Tests Ilustrated 


For some years I have been attached to the staff 
of the Leysian Mission, City Road, London, 
and among our oldest workers is a Mr. Mason, 
formerly resident in the Mission Hostel, and still 
closely identified with our Sunday School and 
other activities. Within an inch of half-way down 
the column appears the name Mason: the position 
was thus foretold with absolute precision. My 
father knew a minister of this name forty years 
ago, and for some years we were on terms of 
unusual intimacy with members of his family. 


“In column, one and about a quarter down, 
is your father’s name given in connection with 
a place he knew very well about twenty years 
ago.” 


Between a quarter and half-way down is the name 
John and one inch above it is Birkdale. My father’s 
name was John, and Birkdale is the name of the 
only house he ever owned, a house he bought 
nearly twenty years before, ze. in 1901, when 
retiring from active work, and in which he resided 
until his death. None of our family have lived 
there for many years past. 


* Just underneath and very close is another 
place he knew. He sensed it was in the 
south of England, direct south, a good distance 
from London. He only lived there a short 
time; it was one of the places of his shortest 
residence.’ 

127 


Newspaper Tests Illustrated 


One inch below the above was Southampton, and 
as my father had lived at two places near that town 
I supposed the indefinite description might be 
intended to cover the locality. This being much 
too vague for evidence, I inquired at my next 
interview if he meant Southampton. The reply 
was given without hesitation, “Southampton was 
not right, Newport was what he intended.’ I 
replied that Newport was not mentioned in the 
paper, but on returning home discovered a quarter 
of an inch below Birkdale the name Newbury. 
May we suppose that there was, to clairvoyant 
vision, sufficient similarity between ‘ Newbury ’ 
and “ Newport, to give rise to a mistake? For 
there followed an explanation of the difficulty of 
seeing clearly the actual words. Passing this as 
a failure, and taking no note of the subsequent 
introduction of ‘ Newport,’ because this had been 
mentioned at previous sittings, there yet remains 
the assertion that one of my father’s briefest resi- 
dences had been at Newport. This is quite correct, 
as I found from letters and documents dating 
before my birth; yet it is a fact of which few people 
would now be aware, and a reference to available 
records of our Church would give the impression 
that he lived at Newport for a much longer period 
than was actually the case. Such incidental remarks 
are valuable clues to identity. 


“Lower in the column he saw, or rather 
sensed, a reference to Ramsgate or that 
locality. But quite close, within an inch of 
it, was the name of some people your mother 

128 


Newspaper Tests Ilustrated 


will remember well as having been at Rams- 
gate. In fact she had a reminder of them 
quite lately from some one she met.’ 


These three statements proved correct. At the 
bottom of the column was Herne Bay, which is 
near Ramsgate, and where my father sometimes 
visited when he had a church at the latter place. 
In the same line and ‘ within an inch of it’ is seen 
the name TFoseph, which at once suggested a 
ministerial friend, Joseph Silcox, who, after leaving 
Ramsgate, presently settled at Herne Bay and 
died there. My mother has frequently met the 
family since then, and tells me that twelve days 
before this test was given she was hearing about 
them from their minister. 


“Another Ramsgate name is very close 
also, but this is a name of one still at Ramsgate 
and in whom your mother would be interested.’ 
Here I inquired whether I knew this person. 
The reply came, ‘Yes, your mother told you 
about him.’ 


On referring to the Times next day there was no 
doubt as to this name, which is in the notice coming 
fourth after the foregoing, although at the top 
of the second column, May we suppose that it 
was moved there owing to a few late insertions 
after these tests were selected. This notice is 
headed Preston. A gentleman of this name is still 
prominent in Church and Temperance work at 
Ramsgate, and was well known to my father. 

120 


Newspaper Tests Illustrated 


My mother had been speaking to me about him 
exactly three weeks previously. It will be noted that 
the wording of the tests implies knowledge that 
while the ‘ Joseph’ family is no longer at Rams- 
gate, Mr. Preston still resides there. 


‘Near the bottom of column one is your 
Christian name and also the name Thomas 
quite close.’ 


It was so. Three-quarters down column one, 
and within four lines of each other, appear Thomas 
and The Rev. Charles. ‘The general accuracy of 
position in the above tests deserves notice. 

It will be inquired how much of the above was 
knowledge possessed by Mrs. Leonard? She was 
normally aware that we had lived at Ramsgate, 
and that I worked at the Leysian Mission. And 
during previous trances mention had been made 
of the name Silcox (in connection with Ramsgate), 
and Newport (as my mother’s old home), also of 
Fred Bird (as an old friend residing near us at 
Bromley). But even had Mrs, Leonard been 
possessed normally of these items, it is not easy to 
suggest how this could have made possible the 
above varied assertions relating to the morrow’s 
Press, and indicating familiarity with my father’s 
earth memories. 


130 





CHAPTER XIV 


EXAMINATION OF THE TEST MESSAGES FOR FEBRUARY 
I4TH, 1920 


Brrore presenting for consideration a somewhat 
numerous selection of these newspaper tests, it 
may be advisable to examine somewhat minutely, 
and in their entirety, those given for a single date. 
We shall thus gain some idea of the characteristics 
generally observable in such tests. 

Two sketch-plans are added which show at a 
glance (a) the positions in which the names con- 
cerned were subsequently found, and (4) the result 
of an attempt to discover how far the forecast might 
have been due to chance. 

The Times Office in Queen Victoria Street, 
London, preserves copies of every issue of the 
paper, inspection of which is permitted on payment 
of a small charge. 


Tests given 3 p.m., February 13th, 1920, to be 
verified from the Times of the day following. 
The following is an extract from my notes of 
a sitting on this date:— 


‘1. The first page of the paper, in column 
two and near the top—(here Feda remarked 
that she could not quite get my father’s 

131 


Examination of the Test Messages 


meaning, but after a pause continued)—the 
name of a minister with whom your father 
was friendly at Leek. 

‘2. Lower in this column, say one-quarter 
down, appear his name, your own, your 
mother’s, and that of an aunt; all four within 
the space of two inches. 

‘3. Near these the word “ Grange.” 

‘4. In column one, not quite half-way 
down, is your mother’s maiden name or one 
very like it. 

‘ ¢. Somewhat above that is named a place 
where your mother passed some years of her 
girlhood. 

‘6. Close to the foregoing is a name which 
suggests an: action which one might make 
with the body in jumping. 

“~. Towards the bottom of column one 
is named a place where you went to school. 

‘8. In the vicinity is mentioned a—shall 
I say a teacher, rather than a schoolmaster— 
of yours whom you will remember well. 

“9. There is a word close by which looks 
to your father like “‘ Cheadle.” 

‘to. Higher in column one, say two-thirds 
down, is a name suggesting ammunition. 

“11. Between that and the teacher’s name 
is a place-name, French, looking like three 
words hyphened into one; the first rather 
long, the last shorter, and one looking like 
é¢ sur.’ 

“12. About the middle of this page, the 
middle both down and across, is a mistake in 
print; it cannot be right, some wrong letters 
inserted or something left out, some kind of 
mistake just there.’ 

132 


Examination of the Test Messages 


It is important to realise that a copy of these 
notes was made the same evening, and posted in 
London so that it would be delivered early the 
following morning. It was sent to the Secretary 
of the Society for Psychical Research in accordance 
with my invariable custom, a practice adopted 
many months previously, when I realised that tests 
from the papers of the day after the sitting were 
becoming a regular feature of conversations with 


my father through Mrs, Leonard and Feda. 


We will now compare the above with the first 
page of the 7imes for the day following the sitting, 
viz., February 14th, 1920. The sketch-plan on 
the adjoining page is made from the front page 
of the Times for this date, and may assist those who 
cannot conveniently refer to the newspaper itself, 
in forming some idea of the general accuracy of the 
tests as regards their position in the several columns. 

I have numbered the tests for convenience in 
studying their verification. 


Item I:— 
‘The first page of the paper, in column 
two and near the top, is the name of a minister 
with whom your father was friendly at Leek.’ 


On looking at this portion of the Times on the 
morning of February 14th, I failed to find either 
Holbrey or Pritchard, who were the only ministers 
whom I remembered at Leek when we resided 
there in my early boyhood. I therefore asked my 

133 


Examination of the Test Messages 
THE TIMES 


Saturday, February 14, 1920 


a a | a | | a | | ET SN 


JOHN 
Hants Cumnock 
Emile 
Sauret 
Charles 


Dorothea | WaTTS 


ee a | a | | EE 


Canon 
Canon 


Braine-le- 
Chateau 


a en re i ee 


Joseph 
Lincoln- 
shire 


' 


mother to read down this column and let me know 

if she found there any familiar ministerial name. 

She at once drew my attention to the name Perks, 

appearing four inches from the top, informing me 

that a minister of that name visited Leek on a 

special occasion, and that my father had much 
134 





Examination of the Test Messages 


enjoyed his company. With this clue I looked 
through my father’s scrupulously kept diaries and 
found that in 1873 the Rev. George T. Perks, M.A., 
then President of the Wesleyan Conference, visited 
Leek as Foreign Missionary Deputation, and that 
my father spent most of the day with him at the 
house of a friend named Stephen Goodwin. An 
incident of this sort was likely to remain prominent 
in my father’s memory. 

The test had proved successful, the name of a 
minister with whom my father was friendly at 
Leek appearing near the top of the second column 
of the first page of the Times for the date specified. 

One of necessity inquires whether this might: 
not have been a mere coincidence? Either of the 
three names, Holbrey, Pritchard, or Perks, would 
have met the test; what then are the chances that 
one or other of these might appear within a few 
inches from the top of the second column of the 
Times for any date taken at random? Collecting 
ten copies of the paper for various dates, I made 
search, but failed to find a single appearance of 
either name, although going very carefully through 
the top quarter of column two in each front page 
_ of the whole ten. This negative result tells against 
coincidence, but the argument against chance will 
be strengthened as we proceed with the examination. 

There arises next the very important question 
of the medium’s knowledge. How much might 
Mrs, Leonard (or Feda) know about Leek and my 
father’s associations there? Looking up my notes 
of a sitting three years before (one of my earliest 

135 


Examination of the Test Messages 


with Mrs. Leonard), I find the following references 
to Leek. My father was telling me (through Feda) 
about a minister he had known named Jones. 
Remembering that he knew at least two of this 
name, I asked, ‘Is it the one who followed us at 
Leek, or do you allude to your old Chairman of 
the District?’ My question seemed to interest 
Feda, who found opportunity for remarking that 
her medium (meaning Mrs, Leonard) had been 
in Leek. When the sitting ended I verified this, 
Mrs. Leonard telling me that she had visited 
Leek in company with her husband some years 
previously. 

Would the incident of Mr, Perks’s visit to Leek, 
at a date before her birth, have been likely to 
attract the notice of Mrs, Leonard? And if so, 
could she have been aware that my father spent 
the day with him, or that he had regarded him as 
a friend ? 

I believe, however, that this earlier reference to 
Leek in connection with my father was largely 
responsible for the ease with which Feda, on the 
later occasion, caught the name. Feda’s memory 
is extraordinarily retentive, and I notice that any 
name once coming into our conversation at a sitting 
is more easily repeated by her subsequently, and is 
usually given with more certainty than attends the 
introduction of fresh names. In the latter case 
there is nothing in the context to assist Feda, and 
she is often inaccurate; items 3 and 9g of this 
sitting, ‘Grange’ and ‘ Cheadle,’ may have been 
imperfectly seen by the communicator, alternatively 

136 





Examination of the Test Messages 


they possibly illustrate Feda’s jumping to a con- 
clusion and giving a word familiar to her instead 
of one the communicator strove to transmit. Have 
we not sometimes found it difficult to catch a strange 
name spoken through the telephone, while familiarity 
has aided us in correctly guessing other names 
pronounced over the wire with equal indistinctness ? 
I now continue the discussion. 


Item 2 :— 
‘One-quarter down column two is his 
name, your own, your mother’s, and that of 
an aunt. All are within two inches.’ 


Let us see what names are required to satisfy 
this assertion. My father’s name was John 
Drayton and mine is Charles Drayton; therefore 
we must find either John and Charles, or one 
of these together with Drayton. My mother is 
Sarah Jane, so that one or other of these names 
should appear in the paper. My various aunts 
are named Emily, Frances Mary, Henrietta, 
Margaret, Susie, Matilda, and Anne Wesley; 
such a number certainly provides scope for the 
chance appearance of a suitable name. 

In the second column of the Times next morning, 
and 14 inches below one quarter down, are the 
names Yohn and Charles, which meet the first half 
of the test. Then comes the name Emile Sauret, 
which presumably suggested Emily and Sarah, 
my aunt and mother. Most significant of all, 
these four names fall within a space 1} by 14 inches. 

As before remarked, so wide a choice of names 

E.H.S. 137 L 


Examination of the Test Messages 


provides room for coincidence, and yet my search 
through ten numbers of the 7zmes for other dates 
failed to find more than two of these names in a 
similar position in any one paper. A glance at the 
accompanying sketch-plan of tests for coincidence 
(see page 147) will make this plain. It will there 
be seen that, in three issues, the names John and 
Mary were found together, and in three other 
issues one of the required names appears in approxi- 
mately the right place. But John and Charles did 
not happen together once, nor was the name of 
any aunt, save Mary, discoverable. This favours 
the assumption that the finding of John, Charles, 
and Emile Sauret in the place described on 
the previous day, and within less than the 
asserted distance of each other, was not a mere 
coincidence. 

Repetition of such tests-revealing a knowledge 
of family names goes far towards proving the 
identity of my communicator. A number of these 
will be found in later pages. 


Item 3:— 
‘Near these the word ‘“ Grange.” ’ 


I can discover neither this name. nor another 
sufficiently near it in appearance to account for 
the idea. Whatever may be the methods used 
by my communicator, they failed him at this point, 
unless it was Feda who tripped over the name. 


Item 4:— 
‘In column one, not quite half-way down, 
138 





b) 
\ 


Examination of the Test Messages 


is a name which is your mother’s maiden 
name or one very like it.’ 


My mother’s maiden name was Dore (without 
the accent). In the Times next day I found, exactly 
one inch short of half-way down the first column, 
the name Dorothea. This is not Dore, yet the first 
portion is ‘very like it,’ as the test claimed it 
would be. 

The presence of names commencing Dor 
is frequent in these columns: I found no fewer 
than six in the corresponding portion of the 
Times when searching ten issues for coincidences. 
The interest, therefore, of this test lies in the fact 
that I was asked to look for a name something like 
the one indirectly indicated (one which I, but not 
Mrs. Leonard, knew to be Dore), and which was 
found to commence Dor This test points 
in the direction of my father’s recollection of an 
unusual name which would be indelibly impressed 
by happy associations upon his memory. This 
name has been brought into one subsequent test 
‘in a connection which revealed a further knowledge 
of family names such as my father would possess, 
but of which Mrs. Leonard would know nothing. 
This was on June 14th, 1920, at 5.40 p.m., when 
the following was given among several items to 
be verified from the first page of the next day’s 
Times :— 








“Near the top of column two is the name 
of your mother’s mother. One of her other 


139 


Examination of the Test Messages 


names is held by another member in the 
family.” 


Wishing to avoid ambiguity, I asked if this 
referred to my grandmother’s Christian name, 
Ann? The reply given was:— 


‘No, that is the name in the paper; but one 
of her other names is held by another in the 
family, and makes a peculiar combination. 
This other name, the married one, 1s to be 
found a little lower. He does not know if it 
is given there as a personal name.’ 


This was correct, for in the Times for June 1 sth, 
1920, the name Aun appeared two inches from 
the top of the second column. Now it is 
dificult to think that Mrs, Leonard could have — 
been aware of this name, the owner of which passed 
on some twenty-six years previously. The final 
remark in the test message indicated knowledge 
that the name in question, namely, Dore, was 
capable of another use; it is pronounced exactly 
like the noun ‘ door.’ 

Coming now to the assertion that this name 
occurred in peculiar combination in the names of 
another member of the family, we find a further 
evidence of intimate knowledge such as my father 
would possess, and which the medium certainly 
would not. My sister’s final names were Dore 
Raw; the name Dore, never having been used save 
in her legal signature, was little likely to have been 
known anywhere outside the family circle. 

140 


Examination of the Test Messages 


Did this name Dore appear in the Times next 
day ? No, but within two inches of the above 4uz, 
and slightly’ lower in the adjoining column, I 
found both Doris and Dorothy, which commence 
with the syllable approximating in sound and 
spelling to Dore. 

From this digression we return to— 


Item 5:— 
“Somewhat above that is named a place 
where your mother passed some years of her 


girlhood.’ 


This description would scarcely lead one to 
expect Newport, I.0.W., which was her home, 
and the only other place applicable would be 
Shirley, near Southampton, where my mother was 
at school for two or more years. On searching 
the paper I found that, four inches above the pre- 
ceding test-words, Doris and Dorothy, was Hanis. 
This is literally correct, Shirley being in Hampshire. 
] have noticed that Feda almost invariably uses 
the term ‘place’ instead of ‘country.’ Careful 
scrutiny of ten other numbers of the Times failed 
to show any mention of Hampshire in the corre- 
sponding part of column one; thus again is support 
lacking for the suggestion of coincidence. 


Item 6:— 
‘Close to the foregoing is a name, which 
suggests an action which one might make 
with the body in jumping.’ 


Within three inches of ‘ Hants,’ and on a level 
with it in the adjoining column, is a place-name, 
141 


Examination of the Test Messages 


Cumnock, which seems to have suggested a pun, 
which, however poor, provoked an involuntary 
smile when I happened unexpectedly upon it. A 
knock might come to one as a result of clumsy 
leaping. How few names would meet the descrip- 
tion. Search through the corresponding portions 
of ten issues of the Times failed to reveal a single 
one which, by any stretch of imagination, could be 
considered apposite. 


Item 7:— 
‘Towards the bottom of column one is 
named a place where you went to school.’ 


Owing to the frequent removals of our home 
necessitated by the Wesleyan itinerant system, I 
was at school in six different towns, and as these 
were in five counties there are no less than eleven 
names, any one of which would fulfil this test. 
Coincidence is therefore probable here, and in my 
search through ten issues of the Zzmes, two names 
appeared in approximately the required position. 
There is, therefore, nothing particularly striking 
in the fact that in the next morning’s Times the 
last line of column one contained Lincolnshire, in 
which county I was at school for three years. As 
intimated above, a county is alluded to by Feda as 
“a place,’ : 


Item 8 :— 
‘In the vicinity is mentioned a—shall I 
say a teacher, rather than a schoolmaster— 
of yours whom you will remember well.’ 


142 


Examination of the Test Messages 


This distinction between master.and teacher hits 
off the position exactly. At the school I attended 
before removing to Lincolnshire, the master was 
named Watts, and his eldest son, Joseph, occasion- 
ally helped his father by teaching the juniors. I 
was a great admirer of Joseph, and those were 
proud occasions when he came to tea with me. 
Joseph was not a master, and yet he sometimes 
taught me. On looking at the part of the column 
indicated I found the name Foseph occurring in 
the same advertisement with Lincolnshire; (but 
more than this, the name Waits appears in the 
next column, where it may have served, if noticed 
by my communicator, to connect the name Joseph 
with this friend of my boyhood). This was another 
fact of the kind my parents would remember, as 
my friendships were matter of much importance 
in their eyes. I find that my mother has very 
clear-cut recollections of Joseph and my admiration 
for him. 

The name Joseph is commonly found in these 
columns, indeed it appears again some three inches 
from the bottom of this column. 


Item 9 :— 
‘There is a word close by which looks to 
your father like Cheadle.’ 


I can find nothing of the kind; it seems another 
case of Feda’s difficulty in transmitting names 
with which she is unfamiliar. 

It will be asked why my communicator does not 

143 


Examination of the Test Messages 


correct Feda when she gives a wrong name? He 
tells me that he is much engrossed preparing the 
next sentence, and is not always aware how Feda 
is interpreting his message; and even when con- 
scious of a mistake, he may elect to let it pass, 
rather than risk entire failure through Feda becoming 
confused. I have known him take control towards 
the close of a sitting and rectify a point which Feda 
had failed in giving. Sometimes Feda announces 
that the word given is not the right one, but the 
nearest she can get. It will be noticed that this 
failure is couched in words expressing uncertainty; 
possibly the error may have been in the mind of 
the communicator. 


Item 1o:— 
‘Higher in column one, say two-thirds 
down, is a name suggesting ammunition.’ 


Just where described the ecclesiastical title 
Canon appears twice. This would be well within 
the range of coincidence, as it is not uncommon 
in the marriage column. It was found three times 
in this position during my search for coincidences 
through ten issues of the paper. 


Item 11:— 
‘Between that and the teacher’s name is a 
place-name, French, looking like three words 
hyphened into one.’ 


This was a definite test, and proved successful; 
for I found 1n the next morning’s paper, and between 
14 


Examination of the Test Messages 


the two ‘ Josephs’ and the two ‘ Canons,’ notice 
of a marriage at the Belgian town of Braine-le- 
Chateau. A supplementary attempt to describe 
this name in greater detail failed. The presence 
of three French words hyphened into one in a 
part of the paper so definitely described as to limit 
it to a space, say, of five inches at most, is rather 
beyond the likelihood of coincidence. There 
was no such instance in the ten copies searched. 


Item 12:— 

‘ About the middle of this page, the middle 
both down and across, is a mistake in print; 
it cannot be right. Some wrong _ letters 
inserted or something left out, some kind 
of mistake just there.’ 


Within three inches of the centre of this page, 
slightly below half-way down column three, is a 
short notice in italics of which the final words are, 
‘on the next page.’ The word ‘ page’ is imperfect, 
the letter ‘ g’ being minus its tail and looking like 
an awkward ‘a,’ thus—‘ paae.’ At least it so 
appeared in my copy, and on inspection of a second 
copy I notice the same defect. Misprints of this 
sort must be rare in the Times, for I have failed to 
discover another. 


Having considered in detail the test messages 
given at this sitting, we find that, out of twelve 
items, only two entirely failed, the others agreeing 
more or less exactly with the forecast given at 

145 


Examination of the Test Messages 


3 p-m. on the day previous to the publication of 
the paper. Could this be coincidence? On the 
adjacent page is tabulated the result of an attempt 
to match these tests by chance. It will be seen 
‘that although ten issues of the paper were searched, 
not one of them yielded more than three chance 
verifications, and the average of success was below 
two, common names accounting for most of these - 
coincidences. 

In order to avoid wearying readers who would 
not be interested in a further consideration of 
coincidence, the results of other experiments have 
been grouped together in the next chapter, where 
they may be: passed over or considered according 
to choice. 


ANOTHER REFERENCE TO LEEK 


There has been a subsequent reference to Leek, 
which seems to pass beyond any possibility of 
coincidence or other normal explanation. 

My notes, posted the same evening and now in 
the possession of the Society for Psychical Research, 
show that on February 18th, 1921, at 6.8 p.m, I 
received the following test message, which was to 
be verified from the Times next morning :— 


‘ About half-way down column one of the 
first page is the name of one whom you and 
your sister knew very well when quite young.’ 


That would take us back more than forty years, 
How many names would satisfy the conditions of 
146 


of the Test Messages 


. 


xamination 


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-o]-oureig | II 


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| | |S se 


erpeeyD |_© 


————. | So | | 


ydesof | ydesof ydasof | 8 


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yoouumns 
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SSS aes Se ee eee Se ae OsUueIL) 
Arey AIeT “349 “TeIeS 
uyof[ sopreyy | sopzeyo *ATTULA 
uyof uyof | ‘sopieyy 
BSS ree res Se ae Sep eee eee ‘ayof | z 
“preqoyud 
*AOIQIOH 
‘syIog | I 


| | —_—————$<—<—— _ | — | — —_—— 
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OY} Ul UOTZLOYIIOA IOF ‘oz6I ‘YZEI ArenIqay Jo Zul}}IS oY} Fe WATS sUID4T OATOM} OY} Jo UOsTIeduloo VW 


“HONACIONIOZ) UO SLSAT sO LINASAY CGaALVTINaV T, 


147 


ie 


Examination of the Test Messages 


this test ? Not many, owing to the fact that coupled 
with the above came a second portion. Feda 
prefaced it by remarking that, since many people 
might say that the presence of the right name 
there was a coincidence, he would add that— 


‘Close to it is a name indicating the place 
where we used to see this person.’ 


The chances are now narrowed; in a definite 
spot has to appear to-morrow a name familiar to 
my sister and me more than forty years ago, and 
close to it, also, must be seen the name of the town 
where such a person resided. 

The friend at Leek, in whose house my father and 
the Rev. George Perks had spent a day together, 
was named Stephen Goodwin. He was one of the 
chief supporters of our Church when my father 
lived at Leek; I recollect him well, and my sister, 
although too young at that time, made his acquaint- 
ance some years afterwards during visits to that 
town. On looking at the Times for the next day, 
February 19th, 1921, I noticed the name Goodwin 
in large type, and this was within two inches of 
half-way down the first column, the exact position 
described. It may have been a mere coincidence, 
or it may have been noticed by the communica- 
tor, but in a different notice on the line above, 
and placed immediately over the name Goodwin, 
was Stephen. ‘Thus the name (or names), as well 
as the position in the column, fit exactly; but the 
test is enormously strengthened and, as it seems to 
me, placed beyond any suggestion of coincidence, 

148 


Examination of the Test Messages 


by the presence, only three inches distant, of the 
name Leek. 

In this instance it is difficult to imagine how 
Mrs, Leonard’s knowledge of our connection with 
Leek could play any part in devising such a test. 
For even on the groundless supposition that she 
could be aware of our interest in the name Goodwin, 
can any one suggest any normal means whereby 
she might know that the name Leek would appear 
in close proximity with it? The problem is rendered 
more complicated by the fact that Leek and Good- 
win are in different columns, although so close 
together. 

It may be well to state here my opinion of these 
two Leek tests, inasmuch as it will apply to the 
whole series, amounting to several hundred, received 
during the last two years. I see irrefutable evidence 
of super-normal ability to ascertain knowledge of 
names which are to appear in the morrow’s Press, 
and, more difficult still, to forecast in what approxi- 
mate position these names will be found. Were 
this all, I might be left in some uncertainty as to 
whether such results might not be accounted for 
by some unusually high degree of clairvoyant 
ability in Mrs, Leonard. But any such uncertainty 
is removed by the consideration that numbers of 
these tests (of which a selection will be given later) 
reveal the intimate knowledge of olden happenings 
which was possessed by my father, and which he 
would be aware I should be able to verify, either by 
my own recollections, my mother’s assistance, or 
his private papers. 

149 


CHAPTER XY 


CHANCE COINCIDENCE FAILS TO ACCOUNT FOR 
THE FACTS 


Queries as to fraud or collusion would seem to be 
out of place in an inquiry as to the originating 
intelligence in newspaper tests. In view of the 
hour at which the tests are given, and the nature 
of the knowledge many of them display, we are 
safe in assuming the inadequacy of this supposition. 

It is otherwise with the question of coincidence. 
Can chance explain? [ will indicate reasons for 
my conviction that it does not. 

It happens that most of the family names alluded 
to in these tests are sufficiently common to be 
assured of a place in every issue of the Times. 
Unless their position be somewhat definitely stated 
there will be ample room for coincidence. It will 
have been observed that their position is usually 
given within, at least, the margin of one quarter 
of a column. But even so, with certain common 
names, and even for the conjunction of two such, 
there might easily be chance correspondence. 
Possibly it is on account of this that the communi- 
cator usually associates such names with other 
items; for when three or more statements are linked 
together, a coincidence, although still possible, is 
unlikely. And when, over a long series of such 

150 


Chance Coincidence fails to Account for the Facts 


linked tests, verification continues to be steadily 
maintained, we gradually perceive that the happen- 
ings are not by chance. This perception is hastened 
by the evidence that a considerable range of 
familiarity with family relationships and events of 
long ago is at the disposal of the communicator. 

Readers can easily take a number of these tests 
seriatim, and discover how far they will apply to 
issues of the Times for other dates than those for 
which originally given. The carrying out of such 
a comparison will do more than argument to prove 
how small a part is played by chance in producing 
the results. 

I have used the tests received in twelve sittings 
—104 in number—and compared them with copies 
of the Times taken at random, in order to see what 
measure of success might be attained by chance. 
Those are counted as ‘inconclusive’ which were 
not failures and yet not wholly exact; sometimes 
the name required was found too far away from 
the place indicated, while, at other times, tests have 
been expressed in a manner too vague to ensure 
conviction that the word found was the one actually 
intended by the communicator. Over these ‘ incon- 
clusive’ verifications, whether of the original tests 
or of the coincidences, scrutineers might differ, 
some tending to the lenient and others to the severe 
side. I have endeavoured to apply the same standard 
both when verifying the original tests and when 
searching in the Times of other dates for chance 
hits. The results were as follows:— 

In the original verification of 104 items,— 

151 


Chance Coincidence Fails to Account for the Facts 


Successes 73; Inconclusive 12; Failures 19. 
In comparison for chance hits with the same 
104 items,— 
Successes 18; Inconclusive 10; Failures 76. 
The best of the chance hits were obtained with 
common names. 


An extended account of the tests I recetved in 
the above-mentioned twelve sittings is given in the 

Journal of the Society for Psychical Research for May, 
1921, where 53 out of 104 examples are fully 
described. I there record in detail the result of 
searching for each of these 53 items in six issues 
of the Times selected at random. Considerable 
latitude as regards position was allowed, yet in 
no instance did a chance-chosen copy of the Times 
yield as many successes as did the paper of the date 
for which the tests were given. Indeed, by far the 
greater portion of the chance hits related to common 
names, and especially to such tests as might be 
met by the presence of any one out of half a dozen 
names; as when searching for, ‘ A relative of your 
wife,’ or, ‘One in whom Alfred is interested.’ 
These chance correspondences were frequently less 
apt than had been the original verifications, and 
about half of the successes related to one or other 
of such names as Mary, Emily, John, William, 
Thomas. It seems fairly evident that if tests are 
selected which exclude all reference to such names, 
and these tests alone are used for a comparison, 
the result must be a reduction of chance successes 
to near vanishing point. 

152 


Chance Coincidence Fails to Account for the Facts 


In the 53 items chosen for comparison there 
were 51 successes. When each item of the 53 
was looked for in six other issues of the paper, the 
result showed a fraction under 13 as the average 
success attained by chance, a result in harmony 
with the preceding one. 


CoMPARISON OF THE Iwo ExXpERIMENTS 


My communicator gets 73 successes out of a 
possible 104. 

Chance trial gets 18 successes out of the possible 
104. 

My communicator gets §1 successes out of a 
selected 53. 

Chance trial averages 13 successes out of the 
same 53. 


Experiments, to be conclusive, need to be based 
upon a considerable number of instances. Little 
would be proved, for example, by comparing a 
single test with a chance copy of the paper; for 
should it happen to fit, we could say that the original 
test was not sufficiently distinctive in character to 
preclude the possibility of chance parallels; yet 
this would be no reflection upon the accuracy of 
the test, neither would it disprove its spirit origin. 
But should experiments dealing with large numbers 
of instances yield chance results approximating to 
those of the sittings, we should then have evidence 
tending to throw doubt upon the super-normal 

E.H.S. 153 M 


Chance Coincidence Fails to Account for the Facts 


origin of the tests. No such instances have come 
under my notice, and readers have in this book 
sufficient material for personal experiments. 

Experimental testing for coincidences tends still 
further to strengthen the conviction that the originating 
intelligence in newspaper tests is a spirit able to use 
superhuman abilities. 

The intimate personal touches constantly appearing 
serve similarly to deepen muy conviction that the com- 
— municator is my father. 


154 


CHAPTER XVI 


TESTS RECEIVED FOR OTHERS AND RELATING TO FACTS 
UNKNOWN TO THE SITTER 


Tue special interest of the tests now to be recorded 
lies in the fact that they include information which 
had never been in my possession. This information 
was as unlooked for by me as by those for whom 
it was given. It still further demonstrates that the 
‘reading of my thoughts’ is not the explanation of 
these newspaper tests. 

The first sitting commences in the usual manner 
with tests for me, and then continues, as do the 
two following, by giving tests for other persons 
to whom I had to apply for the verifications, and 
whose permission to have them included in this 
book has been kindly granted. 

Incidents such as these increase the difficulty of 
supposing that our results can be attributed to 
collusion or coincidence. 


March 16th, 1920, at 2.48 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the first page of the morrow’s Times was nine. 
Result: Correct 7; Inconclusive 1; Failure 1. 


‘A little more than half-way down column 
one is March or Marsh, he cannot be certain 
as to the one letter. He knew some one of 
that name when on earth, and your mother 


T55 


Tests Received for Others 


will know in a moment who he means. She 
would be interested not only in the man, but 
also in one belonging to him. The name of 
the latter is given a little lower. Send the 
paper to your mother and she will remember.’ 


Since this was the month of March the name 
appeared many times, but the interest centres in 
the latter statements. My parents had for many 
years been friendly with a Mr, and Mrs, Marsh, 
who were residing near them in two localities during 
the last few years of my father’s earthly life. Three- 
quarters down this column, which agrees with the 
direction ‘a little lower,’ is the name of Mr, Marsh’s 
wife. I had been unacquainted with her name, and 
was obliged to make inquiries before this could 


be verified. 


‘About one-third down column two, or a 
trifle lower, is given a date which is a very 
important one in your life [not in your father’s 
nor your mother’s, but in yours] The month 
is given and probably the day.’ [(Thinking 
of my birthday in three days’ time, I remarked 
that I could guess to what he referred.) ‘ He 
is laughing and says, ‘‘ Better not guess.” 
He knows of what you are thinking, some- 
thing that happened about now, a very im- 
portant date for the family, but that is not 
what he means. ‘The date in the paper is 
not the one of which you are thinking.]? 
Clairvoyantly he saw Cambridge close to this 
date.’ 


1 The remarks within square brackets were omitted from my 
notes sent that evening to the Society for Psychical Research. 
2 [bid. 
150 


and Relating to Facts Unknown to the Sitter 


The name Cambridge appears exactly one-quarter 
down column two, while less than an inch below it 
is, the 15th of March. For some time | was at a 
loss to recall any event connected with this date, 
and therefore looked in my father’s diaries. There 
I noticed many references to our Church Quarterly 
Meeting falling about this date—say between the 
12th and 20th of the month. This March meeting 
is the most important of the year, and it 1s then 
only that candidates can offer themselves for the 
Wesleyan Ministry. Should they fail to pass, their 
further progress is barred. It had been a satis- 
faction to my father when I successfully passed 
such a meeting in March, 1889. I cannot now 
discover whether it was held on the 15th of the 
month in that year, but it must necessarily have 
been within a day or so of that date. My unspoken 
conviction that he was alluding to my birthday 
evidently amused my father, who pointed out that 
the family shared in that interest in a way that did 
not quite apply to the occasion he had in mind. 

A verification so indefinite must be counted as 
“inconclusive.” 


‘At the beginning of column one there 1s 
a name usually associated with a very early 
part of the Bible. His reason for giving it 1s 
that you have noticed that name particularly 
within the last few days.’ 


The first name in the column is Adams. I had 
certainly been thinking, during the previous day 
or two, of a Mrs. Adams who was an old friend of 

157 


Tests Received for Others 


my parents, and whom I had recently met after an 
interval of some years. 

At this sitting I was accompanied by a clergyman 
who was unknown to Mrs, Leonard and whose name 
was not mentioned. He came with me because a 
few weeks earlier I had received messages of a 
fragmentary character purporting to come from 
his wife, and it seemed possible that in his presence 
something more might be forthcoming. The 
following tests were for him, and were said to be 


given by his wife. 


‘ Near the top of column two, first page of 
to-morrow’s Times, is the Christian name of 
the lady who comes with this gentleman.’ 


Four inches from the top of the column was the 
name Anne Maria. My friend told me during our 
return journey, while we were discussing these 
tests, that his wife’s name was Annie Maria. Mrs, 
Leonard’s control has more than once remarked 
upon the difficulty she experiences in distinguishing 
between Ann, Anne, and Annie, as they sound 
or seem to her so much alike. I have noticed this 
difficulty with other mediums also. 

To resume— 


“Close to it is this gentleman’s Christian 
name. These are close together, possibly 
within half an inch.’ Here I asked my father, 
‘ How do you know these names? I do not 
know them myself!’ Feda replied, ‘ He did 
not know them, but this lady went with him 

158 


and Relating to Facts Unknown to the Sitter 


to look them out. If correct she will go again 
and look out others. It makes a still better 
test when you do not know the names.’ 


Immediately following the above two names 
came The Rev Frederick. My friend’s name 1s 
Frederic (without the ‘k’). These names appeared 
upon adjoining lines within half an inch as stated. 


‘ About one-third down column two is the 
name of a place at which this lady lived and 
which she liked.’ 


Wishing to be in a position to examine these 
tests next day, I asked during our return journey 
what towns would fulfil this assertion. The Rev. 
Frederic named two which would meet the test. 
One was the home of her childhood and the other 
Cambridge. He included the latter because, 
although his wife had not actually resided there, 
she had frequently stayed on long visits to her 
uncle, a University Professor, and was greatly 
attached to the place. One-quarter down this 
column appears Cambridge. 

These three tests, so confirmed, were accepted by 
my friend as indications that his wife was in touch 
with us. She had given her name and his in an 
unmistakable way, and named the place which he 
knew to be associated in her mind with most 
pleasant recollections. Many other evidences of 
her identity were given, both then and at a later 
interview with Mrs, Leonard. ‘They are certainly 
difficult to explain on any supposition other than 

159 


Tests Received for Others 


that of communication from the spirit side of 
life. 

The suggestion that these names had been 
discovered by exploring my mind is out of the 
question; nor can it be argued that they were 
obtained from my friend’s mind, seeing that the 
tests were given only a few minutes after he entered 
a house where he was unknown. They must 
necessarily have been looked out before Mrs. 
Leonard saw him. 

Would it not be entirely natural that his wife, 
perceiving his intention to be present, should avail 
herself of assistance in providing evidential matter 
of this character as supplementary proof of her 
identity 

The explanation of the alleged communicators 
is consistent and covers all the facts. Could any 
alternative supposition sustain this claim on its 


behalf ? 


April 23rd, 1920, at 3 p.m. 

The number of tests given for verification from 
the first page of the morrow’s Times was nine. 

Result: Correct 7; Inconclusive 1; Failure 1. 

I now proceed to an incident which still further 
rules out the hypothesis of telepathy from minds 
on earth. During a sitting on March 26th, 1920, 
I explained that, owing to absence from home, it 
would be impossible to keep my appointment for 
that day fortnight, and that I would send a friend. 
I gave not the slightest clue as to who it would be, 
but had arranged to let a medical man have the 

160 


and Relating to Facts Unknown to the Sitter 


interview, hoping that he might get into com- 
munication with his brother. I was not a little 
surprised, therefore, when my father replied that he 
would be present and bring my friend’s friend, with 
whom he had already attended one sitting. 1 
understood the reference; fifteen months previously 
I had accompanied this doctor to a clairvoyante, 
and although nothing of interest transpired there, 
my father had alluded to the occasion when next 
I spoke to him at Mrs, Leonard’s, saying that he 
had been present and noticed my friend’s friend 
trying unsuccessfully to impress the clairvoyante 
with his thoughts. It would therefore seem that 
my purpose to send this doctor was already known 
to the communicator. By no normal means could 
Mrs. Leonard have been aware of it, and the 
telepathy theory can scarcely be invoked to explain 
what follows. 


PPT) ORT TO AO Mali 2m. 

The first set of tests given me on this date 
proved to be for my medical friend from his brother, 
who had successfully communicated with him 
through Mrs, Leonard since my previous visit. 


‘The first set of tests are for your friend 
from his spirit communicator whose name 1s 
about half-way down the first column of the 
first page of the Times for to-morrow.’ 


Exactly half-way down that column appears the 
name Dyson, which is correct. 
161 


Tests Received for Others 


‘Very close to it is your friend’s name or 
one almost similar.’ 


Two and a half inches below Dyson is the name 
St Andrew's. Until receiving his comments upon 
these tests I had been unaware that his second name 
was Andrews. ‘ Almost similar,’ the apostrophe 
makes the difference. 


‘A little below, say three-quarters down, 
is the name of a place which they have visited 
together and much enjoyed.’ 


Dr. Dyson on inspecting the paper found in this 
spot a mention of Filey, a place where he and his 


brother had frequently spent holidays together. 


‘A little above 1s the name of a mutual 
friend of theirs.’ 


He writes that almost immediately above the 
previous names appear ones and Davies, and that 
either of these might be the mutual friend. 


‘Near the top of column one is the name 
of a great friend who has passed on and is 
with the spirit young man’ (Ze. with the 
doctor’s brother). 


His letter continues: ‘ The first notice at the 
top of column one contains the name Yack. This 
must be Jack Nancarrow; he is absolutely the only 
ereat friend now passed over that I have. More- 
over, in all the first half of column one, there is 

162 


and Relating to Facts Unknown to the Sitter 


no other name or surname whatever of any friend 
of mine.’ 

Of all the above information I knew nothing, 
save the friendship with Nancarrow and the name 
Dyson. Clearly, therefore, there had been no 
reading of my mind. Nor is it easy to see how, 
even had these facts been known to me, mind- 
reading could account for such piecing together 
and accurate selection from the Times as forms the 
peculiar feature of these tests. ‘The information 
given for my two friends, the clergyman and the 
doctor, was as surprising to them as it was unex- 


pected by me. 


May 21st, 1920, at 3 p.m. 

The number of tests given for verification from 
the front page of the morrow’s Times was six. 

Result: Correct 3; Inconclusive 1; Failures 2. 

At this sitting I was again accompanied by the 
clergyman to whom reference has been made in 
connection, with the tests of March 16th, 1920. 
As on the former occasion, the communicator was 
his wife, and the first test referred to his daughter 
Margaret, who sat with us, and of whose name I 
was, of course, aware. 


‘In column one, and a third down, is her 
daughter’s name.’ 


The name Margaret is within two inches of one- 
third down column one. 


‘In column two, near the top, is named the 
163 


Tests Received for Others 


locality where her husband was born. ‘There 
may be some reason for saying “ locality,” 
so it had better be written down so.’ 


Close to the top of this column appears Plymouth. 
The place of his birth, as I afterwards learnt from 
my friend, was a town within twelve miles of 


Plymouth. 


* Half-way down column two is a sentence, 
not a name, which this lady would like applied 
by her husband and daughter to herself. It 
would be very appropriate; but she would 
like one word of it changed, and they will 
recognise at once which word she means.’ 


Nearly half-way down column two was the 
following :— 


* At the going down of the sun, 
And in the morning, 


We will remember them,—Mother.’ 


Evidently the word to be changed is ‘ them,’ 
and in its place is required the word ‘her.’ 


164 


CHAPTER XVII 
TESTS GIVEN BEFORE THE TYPE IS IN POSITION 


In considering the significance of these newspaper 
tests, it is above all important to realise the hour 
at which they were given. The sitting of February 
13th, 1920, at which were given the tests discussed 
in Chapter XIV., exded at 5.15 p.m., and a copy 
for these tests was posted in London at about six 
o’clock that evening. 

In order to weigh the relevancy of this fact, 
taken in conjunction with the general accuracy of 
the verifications on the day following, it will be 
necessary to know the method and time of printing, 
and particularly the hour at which type for the 
front page is produced and placed in order. 

The following is an account of a visit of inquiry 
to the printing office of the Times. 


INQUIRIES AS TO THE TIME WHEN Test-NoTICEs 
ARE IN ‘LYPE 


On Wednesday, February 2nd, 1921, I visited 
the printing works of the Times, accompanied by a 
friend who had obtained the necessary permits. 
In response to my request for information about 
preparations for the front page of the following 

165 


Tests Given before the Type is in Position 


day’s Times, we were conducted to a room in which 
we saw column-long trays. Three of these trays 
were pointed out as being the receptacles in which 
would be arranged all material for the first three 
columns of the morrow’s paper. 

At that time, 4.30 p.m., these trays held but 
little type, barely sufficient to print one-quarter of 
a column. We inquired where at that moment 
were the advertisements which these trays would 
presently contain? For answer the guide conducted 
us to a room in which numbers of linotype machines 
were being worked, and explained that all adver- 
tisements of ‘Births, Marriages, Deaths, In 
Memoriam’ were divided among the operators of 
these machines, who were reproducing them in 
the form of type bars (the technical name of 
which I forget), and that these bars of type would 
be placed in the trays we had first seen. It thus 
appears that after notices arrive on the premises 
(and are presumably listed by clerks), they are 
dispersed among many operators, and not again 
collected into one place until reappearing as type 
in the trays above mentioned. It seemed important 
to learn at what time these trays would contain 
their full complement of type, and we were assured 
that this would not be until a late hour in the 
evening. After a tour of the works we repassed 
the trays at 5 p.m., and found the day-attendant 
about to leave work. He said he would be unable 
to state with any degree of certainty the final 
position of any particular notice, and that the night 


worker, then about to take his place, could not 
166 


Tests Given before the Type is in Position 


know until late in the evening, when the chief part of 
the type should have arrived and been arranged. 

Giving a last look before leaving, we saw the 
several classes of notices lying all together in that 
portion of the tray which corresponds with the 
upper half of the first column of the paper. Looking 
carefully at one particular advertisement, I noted 
that its position was then four inches from the top, 
but next morning in the paper it was found close 
to the bottom of the column. 

Thus it seems clear that even unimpeded access 
to the works at 5 p.m. would not enable an inquirer 
to learn the ultimate position of any one name, 
nor even the contents of the majority of the adver- 
tisements; for many of these would not yet be in 
type, existing only on separate papers in the office 
or the linotype department. A scrutiny of the 
type-trays later in the evening would make possible 
a more or less accurate idea of the position which 
names might ultimately take. But at that time my 
sitting is ended, and the notes have already been 
posted to the Society for Psychical Research. 

Any person permitted to collect tests from the 
material at the printing works, previous to the 
hour of my sittings, would have two alternatives. 
He might scrutinise letters as‘they arrive, noting 
the alphabetical order and total number of notices 
destined for these first three columns, or, he might 
later inspect the linotype machines and see what 
was being typed by them. He might in either 
case succeed in observing the total next day’s 
contents of the columns in question, but would 

167 


Tests Given before the Type is in Position 


have to rely upon calculation for any estimate of the 
probable position which particular names might 
take in the morrow’s paper. 

It becomes evident that even were one in tele- 
phonic connection with the Tzmes office at the hour 
of my sittings he would not be able to receive 
information relevant to these tests, unless it related 
to items for the ‘ Births Column’ having initial 
letters early in the alphabet. For example, should 
any one know that Adams or Brown was sending 
in a birth notice, he might with some confidence 
assume that this would appear close to the top of 
column one. But inspection of tests received 
shows how few instances of this kind appear; 
indeed it looks as if my communicator designedly 
avoided, as a general rule, the upper part of the 
first column. There has been an evident preference 
for tests lying in the upper-third section of column 
two. 

Mrs, Leonard has no telephone, nor has any 
telegram been brought in after my arrival. 

The following Editorial Note appears at the 
close of my article upon Newspaper Tests in the 
Fournal of the Society for Psychical Research for 
May, 1921. 


‘Readers of Mr. Drayton Thomas’s paper may 
ask what procedure is followed in regard to setting 
up in type such advertisements in the Times as 
are referred to in the ‘tests.’ Sir William Barrett, 
F.R.S., has kindly forwarded to us two letters he 
received from the manager of the Times which 

168 


Tests Given before the Type is in Position 


throw light upon this question. The first letter 
is as follows :— 


‘Printinc House Square, E.C.a4, 
* October 19th, 1920. 

‘The small advertisements in the Times (which 
include Births, Deaths, and Marriages) arrive at 
all hours of the day, and we commence setting them 
at ¢ p.m. I should think that often quite half of 
them are set before 8 p.m., and sometimes even a 
larger proportion than this. Beyond this, you may 
notice that many announcements are ordered to 
appear for two or three insertions. Consequently, 
some of them are in type for two days. 

‘ If you care to give me any particular instances, 


I will gladly make an inquiry.’ 


“Tn reply to the invitation contained in the last 
sentence of the above letter, Sir William Barrett 
wrote asking for particulars concerning the par- 
ticular notice referred to above and given at a 
sitting when Mr, Drayton Thomas was accom- 
panied by a friend, the Rev. Frederic 

“The reply from the manager of the Times ran 
thus :— 





* October 25th, 1920. 
“In reply to your letter of even date, I had the 
original copy of the announcement referred to by 
the Rev. F. brought up to me, and find that 
this was in the office by 9.27 a.m. of the morning 
of the 16th March, and was inserted the following 
day. By the time referred to—4 or § o’clock of 
E.H.S. 169 N 





Tests Given before the Type is in Position 


the 16th March—the copy had been set up for 
some considerable time, and of course had been 
seen by several members of our staff.’! 

“Mr, Drayton Thomas’s sittings were held at 
various times between about 11.45 a.m. to 6.30 
p-m. So that it would appear from the statement 
made in the first letter from the manager of the 


Times that at the time of the sitting the particular 


notices referred to in the tests might in some cases 
be already set up in type; in other cases they were 
probably not yet set up; in any case their ultimate 
position on the page could not be normally known 
until late in the afternoon. We may therefore 
conclude that, quite apart from other evidence 
we have of Mrs, Leonard’s honesty, the possibility 
of collusion or fraud may be dismissed as inadequate 
to explain the facts. As to what methods Mr, 
Drayton Thomas’s ‘communicators’ may have 
adopted to acquire the knowledge necessary for their 
purpose, we are unfortunately quite in the dark. 
These newspaper tests differ from book tests in 
this respect, that for some days at least before a 
book test was given, the books were all standing 
ready in their shelves, and, assuming clairvoyance, 
might at any moment be clairvoyantly perceived.” 


1 For description of this test, see pages 158-9. 


170 


_— —_—— a = 


CHAPTER XVIII 


EXAMPLES OF NEWSPAPER TESTS, INCLUDING SOME OF 
THE EARLIEST RECEIVED 


In this selection of tests a few of minor character have 
been included on account of their being in some way 
linked with their more interesting neighbours. 


October 10th, 1919, at 3 p.m. 
On this date I received my first tests from the 
Public Press. ‘The majority were correctly verified 
next morning, among them being the following :— 


‘Look inthe Times newspaper to-morrow, 
and in the second column of the front page, 
half-way down or nearly so, will be your 
name and your father’s, your own coming 
first.’ 


On looking at the Times of next day, viz., October 
11th, I found that exactly one-quarter down the 
second column of the first page was a marriage 
announcement containing the name Charles Fohn 
Workman. Vhis met the test, my name being 
Charles and my father’s John. I then looked at 
the corresponding column of the paper for several 
earlier days of that week, but these showed no other 
such conjunction of our names. 

171 


Examples of Newspaper Tests 


‘In the first column, and much in line with 
the above, there is an address mentioned which 
your father knows well; he knows the town 
and locality.’ 


I found in column one, exactly on a level with 
our names appearing in column two, the address 
Ventnor, IW. ‘This was the only address meeting 
the description, and it answered the test to per- 
fection; for my father had worked in the island, 
and frequently visited Ventnor on professional duty. 


* Now for an attempt at clairvoyance on the 
physical: plane. He thinks that close by 
there is a word looking like Loo or Loos.’ 
(Thinking this too vague, I asked if the verb 
‘to lose,’ or the adjective “ loose,’ was meant ?) 
‘It is more like the name of a town or even 
of a person.’ 


I mentally concluded that if this word were 
there it would prove to be the French Loos, of 
which one had heard during the war. While 
discussing the probability of this with a friend that 
evening we concluded that, if such a name appeared 
in that part of the paper next morning, it would be 
a remarkably good item of evidence for super- 
normal intelligence. To my considerable surprise, 
I discovered, in a ‘Golden Wedding’ notice 
following next upon our names ‘ Charles John’ in 
column two, that some one living at Loose Court 
had been married at the Church of 4// Saints, 
Loose. This was my first acquaintance with the 

172 





Including Some of the Earliest Received 


fact that a Kentish village bears this name. One 
can scarcely suppose that the appearance of such an 
unusual name in an exact position described on 
the previous day can be attributed to chance, 


October 24th, 1919, at 3 p.m. 

At this sitting I received eight tests for verifi- 
cation from the morrow’s Times. Of these there 
were five found to be correct, while two were 
inconclusive, and one failed. 


“In the Times for to-morrow, the first page, 
column two, and nearer the top than one- 
quarter down, is your Uncle Alfred’s name.’ 


I asked if his three names would be there, and 
was told to look for two of them. When inspecting 
the Times next morning, I found that the name 
Alfred was three inches from the top of column 
two, and that the name William stood immediately 
beneath it. Although I knew that Alfred’s second 
name commenced with ‘ W,’ I do not think I ever 
knew what it stood for, and had to refer to family 
records before discovering that his full name was 
Alfred William Thomas. It became evident that 
my communicator knew more about Alfred than 
I did, and it was equally clear that he had superior 
knowledge about the contents of the next day’s 
paper. Replying to my question as to the source 
of his knowledge, he replied that he went to the 
newspaper office and selected tests as best he could 
from the incomplete preparations for the paper, and 

173 


Examples of Newspaper Tests 


‘had just come from there now.’ The fact that he 
claims to be Alfred’s brother has an interesting 
bearing upon his knowledge of our family names. 


‘Almost as if in conjunction with the 
foregoing is the name of a connection of ours 
by marriage.’ 


At first sight this seemed to offer a somewhat 
wide range of choice, but search down the column 
revealed only one name meeting the requirement 
of the test, and this was but two inches from 
‘ Alfred.’ In none of the columns could another 
be found; there was but one, and that one close 
to “ Alfred,’ the name of a family with whom we are 
connected through Alfred’s wife. 


* As he looked there he saw one announce- 
ment three or more times longer than the 
average.’ 


The average length of these announcements was 
four or five lines, and it was true that within four 
inches from ‘ Alfred,’ and only two inches from the 
name of our family connection, was the longest of 
all, no less than fifteen lines. 

The above three tests lay close together, as though 
a small portion of the paper had been taken and 
search made for suitable tests within its narrow 
limits. Prolonged experience of these tests shows 
that this is frequently the case; sometimes the tests 
are scattered, but usually there is a clump in one 
spot. 

174 





Including Some of the Earliest Received 


I took the precaution of searching the Times 
for the day before, but found that not a single 
reference would then have been correct; they were 
only right for the day stated. 

The following test was given on the same 
occasion, and is interesting for its sequel at a 
subsequent sitting. 


‘Turn over two pages and look at the top 
of the fifth, somewhere about the middle or 
say between the third column and half-way 
across. There at the top is mentioned some- 
thing he would very much like to give you, 
and you would find it acceptable.’ Here 
Feda seemed to be confused about the word 
‘article.’ She mentioned it inquiringly, then 
hesitated and said that he meant either a 
newspaper article, or ‘a thing,’ but she was 
not sure which. Finally giving it up, she 
ejaculated the word ‘ financial,’ and concluded 
her effort by the words, ‘ Financial, a sum of 
money.’ 


This left me in the dark as to what was intended, 
until, on inspecting page five next morning, at the 
top of the fourth column I saw a heading in bold 
type which included the words, ‘ Investment 
Buying.’ Having had a considerable sum of money 
in the bank, waiting to be invested for a trust estate, 
my mind had been much occupied about invest- 
ments. I had visited my stockbroker but three 
hours previously, while passing through London 
on my way to Datchet, where this sitting took place. 
One wonders whether Feda’s confusion over the 

175 


Examples of Newspaper Tests 


word ‘article’ arose from her imagining that it 
was something suitable for a gift, while my father 
was trying to inform her that he was thinking of 
an article on finance ? 


Tue SEQUEL To THE ABOVE 


At the next sitting Feda reintroduced the subject 
saying, ‘ He wishes to know about the tests of last 
time. Did you find out about the present he would 
like to have given you?’ ‘To this I replied, ‘ Yes, 
it was something particularly appropriate just then.’ 
Feda continued, ‘ What does he mean by saying, 
“Calling for something”? It does not relate to 
himself, it is not the test, but something happened 
just then making a curious link. He says it was 
most appropriate to that call on the way.’ The 
last remark was significant; for I had given no 
information on the subject, my only observation 
having been the reply above recorded. I concluded 
that, while my father and I understood the allusion, 
Feda remained unaware of its meaning. That I 
should have called on my stockbroker and made an 
investment about noon, and then proceeded to 
Datchet to be told, by means of this reference to the 
morrow’s Times, that my father would have liked 
to give me an investment, was rather too remarkable 
for a coincidence. It may be worth adding that, 
at the conclusion of business, I had spoken with 
the stockbroker about his son, who had been killed 
in the war, and made some reference to the possi- 
bility of communication. Is it not possible that 

176 


os AP en 
5 eee 


Seated’ 


ae nie > - 


Including Some of the Earliest Received 


my strong current of thought, then turned for a 
few minutes to experiences of communication with 
my father, may have attracted his attention and 
brought to him some knowledge of my whereabouts 
and the business which took me to that office? 
It would have left him some three hours in which 
to search for an appropriate reference among the 
preparations for the next day’s paper. ‘That there 
could have been collusion between the stockbroker 
and the medium is scarcely possible; the former 
was emphatic in expressing his disbelief in the 
possibility of communication, 


Note on Newspaper Tests 
OF OcTOBER IOTH AND 24TH, I9IQ 


I had taken the precaution of calling upon a 
sceptical friend, and giving him a copy of the tests 
on my way home from these sittings, thus securing 
evidence in case my accuracy as to dates and hours 
was challenged. Realising by this time that these 
tests were likely to be continued, I commenced, as 
previously stated, to make duplicate copies, send- 
ing the second by post the same evening to the 
secretary of the Society for Psychical Research. 
Thus two persons have copies of these tests before 
the next morning’s papers are issued, and this 
protects me against slips of memory or charges 
of inaccuracy. 

The notes sent to the Society for Psychical 
Research, 20 Hanover Square, London, W.1., have 

177 


Examples of Newspaper Tests 


been preserved, and by courtesy of the secretary 
may be inspected. 


December 4th, 1919, at 12 noon 


_ The number of tests given for verification from 
the front page of the morrow’s Times was five. 

Result: Correct 3; Inconclusive 2. 

This sitting was earlier than most, and one of 
the first remarks made respecting the tests was that 
they had been selected when preparations for the 
next day’s issue at the Times office had not pro- 
gressed so far as usual. Recollecting this, the 
difference in stated position of the following test- 
name is specially interesting. | 


‘On page one and column one, about two 
inches from the bottom, he thought he saw 
clairvoyantly the name Hutchinson.’ 


At first I had written this as Hutchison, but on 
spelling it aloud was told to insert an ‘n’ after *1,’ 
making it Hutchinson. Searching next morning 
in the spot named, I failed to find it, but turning 
from the bottom of the first to the top of the second 
column, discovered it there in the corrected form, 
Hutchinson. ‘The arrival of a few more birth and 
marriage announcements would have been sufh- 
cient to account for the changed position of this 


notice. 
178 


Ss ay ee . 


sat 


Including Some of the Earliest Received 


September 3rd, 1920, at 3.45 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the first page of the morrow’s Times was six. 
Result: Correct 4; Inconclusive 2. 


‘Nearly half-way up column one of the 
first page there is a name—put it in another 
way—he is strongly reminded of American 
conditions. ‘There are two words on different 
lines reminding him of America.’ 


Within an inch of the top of the lower half of 
column one there appears the name Hudson, and 
it 1s repeated in the line following. Feda un- 
questionably used the words ‘on different lines,’ 
but in my copy of the notes sent that evening to 
the Society for Psychical Research, I paraphrased 
it into “in different ways,’ because this wis what I 
supposed was meant by ‘ different lines.’ It was a 
surprise next morning to discover that the * different 
lines’ were lines of print. ‘This is one of many 
incidents showing how entirely independent of 
the sitter’s mind is the devising of these tests. 

The following was from my sister, who, having 
joined my father some months previously, had 
already commenced attending these sittings with 
him, and was taking an increasing part in the 
experiments. 


‘ Your sister says that she thought she could 
clairvoyantly see, some way down column 
two, an address in Italy. She wishes to try 
if she is really clairvoyant yet.’ 

| 179 


Examples of Newspaper Tests 


In the lower portion of the top half of column 
two appears, La Mortola, Ventimiglia, Italy. 


December oth, 1920, at 5.57 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the first page of the morrow’s Tzmes was ten. 
Result: Correct 6; Inconclusive 2; Failures 2. 


‘In the Times for to-morrow, column two 
of front page and close to the top, he thinks 
within an inch, is the name of a friend, a man, 
whom you were helping lately.’ 


There exactly was Lesie. I had recently been 
discussing books and other matters with Mr. Leslie 
Curnow, and, only a week before, had spent an 
evening at his rooms in order to study some psychic 
problems about which he was good enough to 
desire my opinion. 


‘Very close, almost 1n conjunction with it, 
is another name which will be an additional 
clue to him.’ 


Perpendicularly above the name Leslie, and 
separated only by a single line, was Queen Square. 
As Mr. Curnow is on the staff of Light, the offices 
of which are in Queen Square, this is conclusive; 
especially as I have rarely met him anywhere else 
than at this address. But since both the above 
names were embodied in the section headed, ‘ In 
Memoriam,’ it seemed necessary to discover whether 
they had appeared there on the same date in the 

180 


a mal 


SE EET: 


lla 


— 


ea KP Se 


” 


Mies 


: " 


Including Some of the Earliest Received 


previous year. I found that while Lesve had been 
there twelve months before, Queen Square had not. 


‘About three-quarters down column one 
are the names of two relations of your wife, 
whom he often sees on the other side.’ 


Just above three-quarters down this column 
appear together the names Emilie Mary. My wife’s 
sister was named Emily, and her mother Mary. 
Both have frequently sent messages to her at these 
sittings. 


February 4th, 1921, at 6.20 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the first page of the morrow’s Times was ten. 
Result: Correct 5; Inconclusive 4; Failure 1. 


“In the Times for to-morrow, column two, 
page I, and one-quarter down, there is a 
saint’s name which belongs to a member of 
my family, not John. Its owner is with me, 
and I often see him.’ 


One-quarter down is Fames, the name of my 
father’s uncle, who died in 1879. I include this 
little test because it served as landmark to the 
next. 


‘Very close are two names strongly sug- 
gesting Roman Catholicism.’ 


Less than two inches above James appear the 
181 


Examples of Newspaper Tests 


names, Costa Ricci, and immediately over the Ricci 
are the letters R.I.P. The name Ricci is closely 
connected with the Jesuits, Lorenzo Ricci having 
been General of the Society in 1759 and prominent 
in activities which culminated in its expulsion from 
France. Matteo Ricci, 1552-1610, was a prominent 
Jesuit missionary to China, and there were others. 
Costa was the celebrated Italian painter whose 
picture of ‘The Madonna and Child Enthroned ’ 
is in the National Gallery. The letters R.I.P. next 
these two names complete the suggestiveness; 
probably no one conversant with the history of 
the Roman Church would fail to be reminded of 
it by such a conjunction. My father had made a 
careful study of the history of the Jesuits. 


“In column one, and just above half-way 
down is the name of one who wrote you lately; 
he is not a relation, and your father did not 
know him when on earth. He is interested 
in psychic subjects. Your father feels that 
this gentleman is going to write again very 
shortly.’ 


Just two inches short of half-way down column 
one is the name Mania. It will be objected that 
Manta is not Mann. I have, however, included 
this test for its suggestiveness; because I havea 
friend named Mann, whom the description accur- 
ately fits. He had written several-times previously 
about psychic questions, and only four days after 
this sitting I received another letter from him. 

On several occasions when the required word 

182 


a gt ee 


*& 3 


g 
i; 


= eee 


gr Sng 
agen e Eas 
epee 


— 


gy Se i 





Including Some of the Earliest Received 


was not present on the page, my communicator has 
selected, as in the preceding instance, another 
which approaches in sound or in spelling the one 
he needs. 


“At the bottom of column one is your 
Uncle Alfred’s name, and close by are certain 
words which would refer to his niece “ E,”’ 
not a name, but words.’ 


Four and a half inches from the bottom of this 
column appear the names William Thomas, my 
uncle’s full name being Alfred William Thomas. 
One inch below this is notice of a death ‘ of heart 
failure,’ which connects with the recent death of 
his niece ‘ E’ by heart failure after an operation. 


183 


CHAPTER XIX 


THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SUCCESSFUL TESTS AND NOTE 
UPON PSYCHOMETRY 


Tue SIGNIFICANCE OF SUCCESSFUL TESTS 


On a review of the test-messages presented for 
consideration in the foregoing pages, it will probably 
be agreed that no theories of collusion, nor of 
coincidence, can suffice to explain the manner in 
which they were verified by the Times. The 
relevancy of the names found in the indicated portion 
of that paper for the following day being clear and 
precise for the more part, and requiring no ingenious 
reading in of meanings which did not lie on the 
surface. 

The examples given are but a small fraction of 
the number received during the last two years, 
some of which have been taken from other papers 
besides the Times, and some also from magazines 
previous to the date of their publication. 

This type of evidence is new, and represents a 
desire on the part of its originators to produce 
results even more arresting and conclusive than 
the cross-correspondences and book tests which 
for some years preceded it, results which cannot 

184 





Note upon Psychometry 


be attributed to the exercise of any known powers 
of the human mind, whether subliminal or 
otherwise. 

Let us suppose that the medium has such develop- 
ment of clairvoyant ability as would enable her to 
wander at will, and in full consciousness, around 
the offices and printing department of the Times. 
In this way she might ascertain that certain names 
were to appear in the morrow’s paper, but how 
would this assist her in estimating the probable 
position in which these names would appear? 
True, if there were birth-notices from families 
whose initial letters were A, B, or C, it would 
be safe to surmise that these notices would be in 
the top part of column one, where such are invariably 
placed. But this supposition does not greatly assist 
us, since my communicator has shown a preference 
for the second column, and has given comparatively 
few from the upper portion of the first. 

Continuing our supposition, and assuming that 
the medium observes that a certain advertisement 
is already arranged for some definite position, how 
are we to picture the process by which she discovers 
that a name in this paragraph can be linked up with 
an event in my father’s life ? 

Having found out that the name Leek (see page 
146) would appear in column two, by what method 
are we to suppose the medium learnt that the name 
Goodwin would be placed near it, although in the 
first column? And, further, how did she know that 
this name might be used to indicate one whom my 
sister and I used to know more than forty years ago? 

E.H.S. 185 0 


The Significance of Successful Tests and 


If it be suggested that the relevancy of Leek and 
Goodwin was to be extracted from my own mind, 
it may be inquired in reply, ‘ Whose intelligence 
was it that accomplished the feat?’ Nor would 
this suggestion of the exploration of the sitter’s 
memories account for occasions when the name 
in the morrow’s paper has been linked with facts 
unknown to the sitter, and only discovered by him 
when making subsequent inquiries. 

The outstanding fact is that names which are 
being arranged for a place in the morrow’s Press 
have been correctly indicated as to position, and then 
linked with incidents which were sometimes known, 
and sometimes unknown, to the sitter. It was 
very intelligently done. Whose intelligence accom- 
plished the feat? If selected from my own mind— 
Who was it made the very judicious selection ? 
If we say that it was done by the medium, we have 
to assume abilities for which we have no evidence, 
and pass into the region of pure guesswork. Con- 
scious fraud is out of the question in these instances, 
and of a sufficient subconscious intelligence we have 
no evidence whatever. 


A CoNSIDERATION OF THE Powers NECESSARY FOR 
THE COMPOSITION OF SUCCESSFUL NEWSPAPER [TESTS 


Difficult as it proved to imagine any extension 
of known human faculties by which the medium 
might herself have produced the book tests, it 
becomes even more so when we try to suppose her 

186 





Note upon Psychometry 


the author of newspaper tests and, more especially, 
of those containing internal evidence of my father’s 
identity. 

It will be recalled (see Chapter IX) that we 
found the following abilities requisite to the pro- 
duction of the book tests :— 

1. Such degree of clairvoyance as would permit 
the making of minute observations in distant 
places and retaining memory of things there 
seen. 

2. Ability to extract the general meaning from 
printed pages in distant houses. 

3. And to do this despite the fact that the books 
concerned are not open at the time. 

To which, for production of private and personal 

book messages, 1t was necessary to add:— 

4. Ability to obtain knowledge of happenings in 
the sitter’s home and private life relating 
both to the present and to the distant past. 

s. An intelligence which knows how to select 
from among our hosts of memories the 
suitable items for association with the book- 
passage, or conversely, of finding a suitable 
passage for the particular memory fished 
from the deeps of our mind. 

This is a formidable list of requirements, and 
would appear ludicrous were it not compiled in 
an attempt to explore the possibilities of an alter- 
native explanation. The facts face us. They have 
to be accounted for. They have been repeatedly 
produced. By whom? Only by those possessing 
and exercising the abilities listed above. The 

187 


The Significance of Successful Tests and 


suggestion of trickery or collusion has been dis- 
missed from court; it is impossible. Did Mrs, 
Leonard possess the requisite faculties? He 
would be an imaginative and credulous person 
who dare assert it ; no physical or mental powers 
known to science could accomplish what has been 
repeatedly done. The messages themselves often 
assert, and invariably assume, that their author is 
in spirit-life. 


Tur AUTHORSHIP OF NEWSPAPER TESTS 


Let us now venture upon an examination of the 
supposition that newspaper tests are produced by 
some elusive fragment of Mrs, Leonard’s personality. 

Fraud and collusion are here even more absolutely 
ruled out than before. Ifa spirit is not the author, 
then Mrs, Leonard must be. In that case we must 
further add to the hypothetical list of her abilities :— 

6. Power to obtain information as to names 
which are to appear in the morrow’s Press. 

7. And a knowledge of their approximate 
positions on the page. 

8. Power to ascertain many details of my 
father’s earth life, including some which 
were unknown to me and only verifiable by 
Inspecting his diaries, or by questioning 
relations. 

We must recollect that the newspaper is not in 

type at the hour when these tests are given, and 
that the names concerned are only to be seen upon 


various slips of paper apportioned among operators 
188 





Note upon Psychometry 


in the printing rooms. How are these names 
scrutinised, and how are their destined positions 
estimated, positions which they will not assume 
for some hours after the sitting ends? We are 
entirely unaware of any human power, whether of 
normal or hypnotised persons, by which this might 
be accomplished. 

But the climax of achievement relates to those 
tests in which old memories relating to my father 
are incorporated. Can we imagine any ability by 
which Mrs. Leonard could effectively probe the 
memories of my relations—several of whom are 
persons she has never seen—and select appropriate 
incidents therefrom? My father’s diaries, which 
have always been securely under lock and key, 
afford a few hints which have helped me to verify 
tests; can we suppose that some fragment of Mrs, 
Leonard’s personality has discovered their location, 
and so read them as to realise the relevancy of their 
_ allusions to matter which was subsequently con- 
nected by intelligent and verifiable association with 
names of persons and places appearing in the 
Times and the Telegraph on the day following the 
sittings ? 

Such attempts take us into realms of imagination, 
where we leave far behind us all proved facts and 
experiences relating to human powers, whether 
physical or mental. 

The explanation given by my communicator 1s 
simple and in agreement with all that has been 
discovered as to the possible interaction of spirit 
intelligence with mundane life, 

189 


The Significance of Successful Tests and 


Nor are book and newspaper tests the only proof 
given. All my sittings abound in references to 
such of my doings and surroundings as would be 
unknowable to Mrs, Leonard normally, also with 
references to my father’s earth life; besides which, 
they include a wide range of elusive touches which 
are unproducible in cold print, but in which I see my 
father’s personality ringing true to that which I knew 
so well during his life on earth. 

Our search for alternative explanation fails, that 
of spirit action remains alone upon the field. 

Let us then pass to another phase of the inquiry, 
and ask whether Feda, Mrs. Leonard’s control, 
represents the intelligence by which these test- 
messages are devised ? We have previously assumed, 
for the sake of argument, that Mrs. Leonard’s 
clairvoyant ability enables her to roam at will 
where the preparations for the Times of the morrow 
are in progress; but let us now suppose that Feda 
can do this, and that she ascertains the probable 
position of numerous names. This would account 
for such a message as the appearance of the name 
‘ Loose’ in the designated column, although, upon 
our supposition, one would expect Feda to do 
more accurate work in the transmission of names 
than she has usually accomplished; for, in this case, 
there would not be that liability to error in the 
transmitting of a name between the communicator 
and Feda of which there is constant evidence. 
Let us say that Feda sees the name, and resolves 
to astonish the sitter by linking it with his own 
reminiscences; her next task would be to explore 

190 





Note upon Psychometry 


his memory for suitable material. Can a control 
do this ? i 

An imperfect acquaintance with the power of 
psychometry! is apt to bewilder the inexperienced 
investigator. He finds that a psychometrist, by 
holding in the hand some object from his wardrobe, 
can tell him various matters relating to his past 
doings. He has no means of perceiving the 
point at which the psychometrising passes into 
the reception of information from higher intelli- 
gences, and he may easily fall into the error of 
assuming that a good sensitive can, by contact with 
his property or his person, as when holding his 
hand, ‘tell him all things that ever he did.’ It 
is not so, and the intelligent sensitive would be the 
first to admit it. Certain fleeting impressions, many 
of them curiously accurate, can be gained by 
psychometric faculty; but this is not to be confused 
with any such power as the exploring at will of 
the sitter’s mind and memory. The psychometrist 
takes what comes and is limited in his choice; 
whether he could hold my hand and say to himself, 
‘I desire to know what connection this person may 
have had with Leek,’ and then receive from my 
memory the names of my old friends there, is a 
question to which only prolonged experiment can 
provide answer. I am unacquainted with any 
such results. 

But if a medium cou/d do this we would readily 
assume that Feda might do it even more easily. 
Up to the present all my experiments with Feda 


1 See note on Psychometry at end of chapter. 
Igl 


The Significance of Successful Tests and 


have failed to find in her any trace of ability to 
explore my thoughts or reproduce my memories; 
the evidence all points the other way. I will restrict 
myself to one illustrative incident. My friend, 
Mr. G. F. Bird, knew my father intimately, and on 
learning that I believed myself to be in communi- 
cation with him through Mrs. Leonard, asked me 
to try the following test. ‘I remember,’ said he, 
‘that Mr. Thomas once met a visitor at our house. 
Years afterwards when we removed to London 
your father came to see us, and looking through 
our album came upon the photograph of the visitor 
of whom I am thinking. He made a curious 
remark, and it is possible that he would, if you 
asked him, be able to recall something that was 
unusual in this connection.’ I promised to repeat 
this to my communicator and ask him what he 
could recollect of the circumstance. 

Now the whole point of this incident lies in the 
following fact, about which I said nothing to Mr. 
Bird until the experiment was completed. I clearly 
remembered that, about the time first alluded to, 
there was a coloured lady visiting Mr. and Mrs, 
Bird, and as she was a friend of theirs it seemed 
more than likely that in their album would be her 
photograph. I fully expected that the remark which 
it was expected my father might remember would 
prove to relate to the lady’s colour, and when, 
through Feda, I asked if he could revive this 
memory of the album I fully expected to get the 
answer, ‘She was black.’ Nothing of the sort 
happened; the communicator knew many things 

192 


EE - 


Note upon Psychometry 


about Mr. Bird and his old home, but failed to 
recollect the trivial remark about the photograph 
or even to distinguish the particular visitor inquired 
about. Had Feda been ‘reading my mind,’ she 
might have brought off a striking result, which, 
however misleading to me as regards my father’s 
presence and memory, would have shown ability 
to seize the prominent thought in the sitter’s mind 
at the moment, a thought which had also been 
strongly with me for several preceding days. So 
expectant was I that this experiment would yield 
the word ‘ black,’ that I wrote out my anticipation 
and the reason for it, and handed this in a sealed 
envelope to Mr. Bird before going to the medium. 

Feda has always similarly failed when trying to 
get at my thought. In conversations with her 
upon this point I gathered that, when first com- 
mencing her work as control with Mrs. Leonard, 
she would get some impressions from the sitter in 
addition to messages from spirit communicators. 
She was, however, soon instructed that it was the 
duty of a good control to discriminate, and to refuse 
steadily all impressions emanating from the sitter. 
Thus one suspects that with an inferior quality of 
mediumship, or when a control is not experienced 
and careful, sitters may occasionally receive a 
certain amount of supposed ‘ evidential matter ’ 
which has its origin in themselves and not in the 
mind of spirit friends. It is one of the complications 
of our subject, and worthy of careful investigation. 
I do not think it results in anything worse than a 
partial misunderstanding on the part of inexperienced 

193 


The Significance of Successful Tests and 


sitters who, perhaps too easily, assume that all 
‘evidence’ is equally valuable, provided it can be 
proved that the information received could not 
have come normally before the notice of the sensi- 
tive. For it would indeed be a poor sitting in 
which such psychometrising, whether done by the 
sensitive or the control, was not mingled with 
messages emanating from higher sources. The 
disentangling of the two streams of knowledge 
provides wholesome work for that sane and balanced 
judgment which should protect the inquirer on the 
mental side, even as a pure heart and prayerful 
aspiration protect him on the spiritual. 

From the above digression we return to the 
question of the origin of our Times messages. | 
am satisfied that fraud, whether conscious or 
unconscious, on the part of medium or control, 
could not account for the facts; and that no assumed 
extension of clairvoyance or other faculties in the 
medium, nor of ‘fishing’ by the control in the 
sitter’s mind, can assist us in solving the problem. 
I have compared all suggested explanations, so 
far as known to me, with my experience of newspaper 
messages, extending over a period of two years, 
and I know of none, save one, which covers. more 
than the outer fringe of the evidence. That my 
father links his former memories with matter discovered 
in preparation for the morrow’s Press is the only 
explanation logically fitting with the facts. 

That cautious criticism should endeavour to 
exhaust all possible avenues of explanation before 
accepting this belief is no cause for complaint. 

104 





Note upon Psychometry 


It is right and wise, and one would wish to have 
it so. But the evidence requires to be considered 
in its entirety: so-called explanations which take 
no account of the more difficult facts, or theories 
depending for their cogency upon assumptions of 
subconscious abilities for which we have no proof, 
are only obstacles placed in the pathway of advancing 
knowledge. When true inferences have been 
drawn from facts, one is free to proceed, making 
use of the knowledge won for solving further 
problems, and thereby gaining yet clearer light 
upon life’s meaning and the interaction of the 
spirit realms and earth. 

Those whose minds are, by constitution or 
training, logical and cautious would, I am aware, 
find it easier to share my conviction if they could 
conceive the methods by which these newspaper 
tests are accomplished. J am frequently asked if 
the communicator does not explain how the thing 
is doner My own curiosity suggested many 
questions, and my father has never wearied in his 
endeavours to elucidate, to the limited extent it 
may be possible, his methods in obtaining the tests. 
Fragments of these conversations are recorded in 
the next chapter. He represents himself as an 
experimenter, learning by experience how to carry 
out successfully a scheme devised by a group of 
older and more advanced minds for the benefit of 
those on earth who are seriously striving to under- 
stand. This group, realising how baffling to us 1s 
our uncertainty as to the possible extension of 
telepathic ability and the degree in which this 

195 


The Significance of Successful Tests and 


human power may be supposed to account for 
many of the phenomena of mediumship, has devised 
sundry methods of helping us by the elimination of 
this element. Book tests were much more difficult 
to explain by any imaginable extension of telepathy 
than had been some of the phenomena preceding 
them; and now newspaper messages have been 
devised to carry this process of elimination a step 
further. 


Note upon PsycHOMETRY 


Psychometry is described by Mr. J. Arthur Hill 
as ‘ ‘The gathering of information about the history 
of an object or its owner, by handling it.’ He 
adds, * The thing is a fact, but how it comes about 
is unknown, even to the psychometrist.’ 

In Sie s Encyclopedia of Occultism it is define 
as follows: ‘ The faculty of reading the characters, 
surroundings, etc., of persons by holding in the 
hand small objects which they have had in their 
possession.’ 

A brief description of my first experience of 
this power may illuminate the theme. Having 
been introduced to a lady who was said to give 
information about people by handling their letters, 
I asked permission to put this to the test. The 
lady, who is the wife of the mayor of an important 
provincial town, readily consented, and I handed 
her a letter received some years previously from a 
friend who had since died. ‘The letter which, I 
need scarcely add, she did not attempt to read, 

196 





Note upon Psychometry 


made no reference to his health. I was given first 
some apposite description of his personal character, 
and then followed this sentence: ‘The writer 
has a strong spirit in a frail body; indeed his hold 
upon physical life is so slight that he should take 
special care lest he should slip out of his bodily 
sheath before the due time.’ This seemed sufh- 
ciently accurate to justify a further experiment, 
which I asked and received permission to make. 

When next meeting this lady at the house of a 
mutual friend, I came prepared with four letters 
which had been placed in identical envelopes. 
These were handed to an assistant, who was asked 
to select one from the packet and pass it to the 
psychometrist. The letter was not scrutinised 
by the latter, but pressed against her forehead 
during the giving of the description. Removing 
to the far end of the room, I sat with my back 
to the others and wrote down what was said. When 
the first letter had been psychometrised it was 
replaced in its envelope and a number pencilled 
thereon corresponding to the number heading my 
notes. This method avoided my knowing, during 
progress of the experiment, which letter was being 
psychometrised. The second and third were 
treated similarly. Thus I obtained three psycho- 
metric descriptions without knowing which letters 
were being dealt with. Only at the close of the 
experiment was it possible to pair the letters with 
their descriptions. 

The results, although not entirely correct, were 
sufficiently striking :— 

197 


The Significance of Successful Tests and 


1. The writer of number one was said to be 
artistic to an unusual degree. ‘This was true; she 
is a professional singer and a remarkably gifted 
amateur sketcher. 

2. Number two was said to have been written 
by one who was often in a beautiful garden con- 
taining a large sheet of ornamental water. This 
also was correct; its writer lived at that time in 
a mansion standing in its park and having extensive 
gardens of unusual variety and beauty, including a 
boating lake. Only two of my friends had a lake 
in their grounds, and this was one of them. 

3. The third letter was said to have been written 
by an excessively tired person. For a few moments 
the psychometrist could give no more information, 
and expressed the fear that the feeling of weariness 
would prevent reception of further impressions. 
However she presently added (and it sounded 
illogical) that the writer appeared to be a boy at 
school. I discovered, on comparing the letters, 
that this came from a young nephew then at Dover 
College, and I wondered if a chance glimpse of the 
boyish handwriting might have suggested the idea 
that the writer was a schoolboy; but there was 
nothing to account for the reference to weariness, 
which I concluded must be wrong. It was not 
until recounting this experiment in his home that 
I learnt its applicability. My nephew surprised 
me by exclaiming, ‘That is perfectly true. I 
always write my letters when too tired to do any- 
thing else. I had come in from afternoon football, 
and wrote to you before tea.’ 

198 





Note upon Psychometry 


I should not care to base an argument upon data 
so meagre, but offer the above in illustration of the 
definitions given of Psychometry. One of the 
earliest and probably still one of the best books 
upon the subject is that entitled, The Soul of Things, 
written by Professor Denton in 1884} who, finding 
that his wife and son possessed the power, made 
prolonged experiment. It 1s to be desired that 
others would conduct equally careful experiments 
with this elusive faculty. 

Mrs, Leonard has made few attempts in psycho- 
metry, and those few have not given her encourage- 
ment to pursue that for which she apparently has 
no ability. 

It seems safe to assume that no psychometric 
power in Mrs, Leonard, even were she to hold one’s 
hand, which she does not, could account for infor- 
mation being given which was unknowable at 
the time by the sitter and which subsequently 
proves correct. 

Besides which, it is difficult to see why, supposing 
appropriate matter could be obtained by Mrs, 
Leonard from my mind, or psychometrically from 
my person, there is so often an insuperable difficulty 
in giving names and other simple items which are 
familiar to me. It is a curious experience, after 
having received correct references to pages of books 
scattered about one’s library, to hear the control 
struggling to spell out a name which I know to 
be the one inevitably required for completing some 
explicit description. Such efforts usually fail to 


1 Published by Denton Publishing Co., Wellesley, Mass. 
199 


The Significance of Successful Tests 


pass beyond the initial letter of the required name; 
nor does my concentration upon that name appear 
to make things one whit the easier. It has often 
seemed, during such episodes, that things zot within 
my knowledge are more easily transmitted than the 
things which I know. This frequent failure to 
obtain from the sitter well-known names and 
information, would, on the psychometric hypo- 
thesis of book tests, be a phenomenon requiring 
explanation. 

This slight note upon Psychometry may fittingly 
close with the following extract from Sir William 
Barrett’s book, Psychical Research, page 198 :— 

‘Certain sensitives are said to be able to detect, 
or “psychometrise,”” as they call it, the influence 
left on material objects worn by an absent or 
deceased person. Whether this be the case or 
not, there are some startling and well-attested 
phenomena related by the elder mesmerists which 
apparently indicate that some specific influence is 
left on a material object by the passes of a 
mesmerizer. ‘The scientific objections to a specific 
effuence are perhaps not so formidable now that 
we are acquainted with certain physical and 
psychical facts that would have been deemed 
utterly incredible a century ago.’ 


. 
Ail 





CHAPTER XX 


NEWSPAPER TESTS AS VIEWED FROM THE OTHER SIDE 


Ir was in October, 1919, that I first heard of news- 
paper tests, one from the Morning Post being shown 
to me by friends whom I had introduced to Mrs. 
Leonard. At my next sitting Feda commenced to 
speak about this, and stated that my father had 
suggested it to their communicator, and had now 
come prepared to give me one from the Times. 
The accompanying remarks were, in substance, 
as follows :— 


‘These tests have been devised by others 
in a more advanced sphere than mine, and I 
have caught their ideas. This may be done 
even when we do not realise whence the 
thought originates, much as when minds on 
earth receive inspiration. We can visit these 
higher helpers, and, even when away from 
them, may be very conscious of their assistance. 
I am not yet aware exactly how one obtains 
these tests, and have wondered whether the 
higher guides exert some influence whereby a 
suitable advertisement comes into position on 
the convenient date; I have thought of this, 
but do not know. These tests will be better 
than the book tests, because more definite, and 
their object will be to prove that we can obtain 
information from other quarters than the mind 
E.H.S. 201 P 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


or surroundings of the sitter; it will be useless 
to invoke “‘ the subconscious mind” as an 
explanation here. I was taken to the Times 
office, and did not find the way there by myself; 
helpers are plentiful when we are engaged on 
work of this kind.’ 


This first test from the Times was strikingly 
successful, and I noticed that the test words chosen 
lay in groups, several occurring close together. 
Remarking upon this at the next sitting, I was told 
that I might assume they would often be found 
thus, as a small area was concentrated upon and 
the other areas ignored, unless some chance word 
there happened to catch the attention. When one 
patch had been scrutinised another might be selected 
if necessary. 

While giving the third set of these messages, 
my communicator remarked :— 


‘You will notice from the items selected 
that there is both a personal and an impersonal 
class. It is the personal interest that attracts 
me and suggests a particular test, and it is 
much easier to form a test when I can see a 
personal association in it. ‘These will prove 
to be the best in my selection.’ 


A glance at the tests of this period shows how 
strikingly true this was, family names and associa- 
tions being the subject of nearly all the better 
results. 

I did not at this time realise that the three sets 

202 





j 
7 
: 
4 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


of newspaper tests already received were the pre- 
cursors of a long series; but it became evident that 
the communicator so regarded them, for he contrived 
to combine a statement on this point with an 
italicised remark in the Windsor Magazine for 
December, 1919. I had requested that we might 
have a change from the Times, lest there should be 
given cause for the criticism that restriction to one 
paper suggested some sort of collusion. I had 
looked ahead, and found that I was due to sit with 
Mrs. Leonard on a date some five days before the 
Windsor Magazine would be published. I therefore 
requested that tests might be selected from that 
magazine. ‘The suggestion was accepted willingly, 
and on November 21st, in addition to the Times 
tests, came six from the Windsor, of which five 
proved accurate. Among them was the following :— 


‘On page to, disregarding advertisements 
and counting from the beginning of the 
reading matter, there is a personal message 
commencing about one-quarter down on the 
left side. ‘Take it as a message particularly 
applicable just now in view of the fact that 
you are starting upon a most important part of 
your psychic investigations.’ 


One-quarter down this page was a short state- 
ment set out by itself and printed in italics; it 
commenced close to the left side with the words, 
‘ This story is the first of a series . . .2. Omitting 
the word ‘story,’ and taking it as a personal message, 
I gathered that it had been selected in order to 
serve as a statement that these tests would form a 

203 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


series. As I have now been receiving them regularly 
for two years, that promise has been abundantly 
fulfilled. 

It should be added that several days elapsed 
after this sitting before I was able to obtain a copy 
of the Windsor Magazine. 

The year 1920 represents a second stage in the 
experimenter’s endeavour to explain to me, and 
apparently to understand more fully for himself, 
the problem of these tests. During the early period 
there had been little said to suggest that the method 
used differed greatly from that pursued in obtaining 
book tests. 

But in January, 1920, the opinion was expressed 
that sometimes when obtaining material for these 
tests there was seen neither metal type nor printed 
paragraph, but ‘ something different.’ ‘This ‘ some- 
thing different’ the communicator did not at first 
know how to designate, and it was termed ‘the 
spirit, ghost, or etheric duplicate of the word,’ or 
its ‘aura,’ and we finally agreed to employ the 
term ‘ etheric duplicate.’ He expressed himself as 
deeply interested in the problem, and desirous of 
investigating it further. By the following November 
his views had progressed, as will be observed from 
the following notes of a conversation in that 
month :— 


‘Sometimes in getting these tests I think 

I am seeing, when really it is not something 

seen, but the operation of a power of materiali- 

sing the thought of it; I see, not the thing 

itself, but something which I have created 
204 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


through sensing it. Perhaps photography 
provides an apt illustration, when you can only 
see the picture as you proceed to develop the 
plate; I am now able to develop the idea 


sensed until it becomes visible to me. But 


more than this, I have glimpsed an idea which 
I should much like to work out more fully, 
namely, that I can in this way see things which 
are shortly going to be. It is much as when 
you realise the coming of a man whose shadow 
you see approaching round a corner; since 
the shadow suggests the man, you know that 
a man will almost immediately appear. 
seems to me that we on this side have a power, 
capable of development, by which it 1s possible 
to interpret the “‘shadows”’ of things to be, 
but not actually existing at the moment. 


have seen shadows, and thought them the 


actual objects themselves. I fear you will 


find it difficult to grasp this.’ 


I ee — 


‘What produces this “shadow” of the 


object ?’ 
He replied :— 


* That is exactly what I wish to discover. 
suspect, but am not sure, that whatever 1s 


about to materialise on earth has its spiritual 


counterpart, which 1s reflected, say, on the 
atmosphere or ether, but not visible to all. 
Admitting that each object may have such 


counterpart, you will ask how an event yet to 


happen can have its spiritual counterpart? 
205 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


I think in the same way that an intention may 
be sensed by a sensitive before it is put into 
action by the sitter. Sometimes when a man 
proposes to commit murder his intended victim 
feels a sense of impending danger. Animals 
feel this even more than do human beings, 
sensing what is about to happen. Now the 
things I see are frequently but the spiritual 
counterparts of things which are about to 
take form; some of my tests from the Times 
might be called shadows of a substance. When 
you see a shadow it is but an outline, and you 
do not look for detail, and that explains the 
difficulty of these tests; we cannot always 
sufficiently observe detail.’ 


Twelve months after the above conversation the 
subject was again referred to on my asking how 
the mistake could occur of saying that he saw the 
word ‘rain’ in a particular position of the next 
day’s paper: he had missed the two middle letters 
of the word, which proved to be ‘raisin.’ The 
remarks arising from my inquiry were, in substance, 
as follows :— 


“I cannot always see these words. Book 
tests were easier to do, probably because the 
books were always present; whereas it 1s 
otherwise with newspaper tests, which must 
therefore be obtained in another manner.’ 


I asked :— 


‘Do you now understand what it actually is 
that you operate upon at the Times office ? ’ 
206 


lS ee 





Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


He replied :— 


‘It is still a puzzle. On one occasion | 
thought I saw the complete page set up; it 
certainly appeared to be so, and I noticed 
certain items in it which I believe proved 
correct. But on returning to the office a 
little while after—for I frequently go twice 
to make more sure of the tests—I found that 
the page was not yet set up, and this astonished 
me and was most perplexing.’ 


I asked :— 


“Do you understand it now ?’ 


He replied :— 


‘No, not quite. You will recollect my once 
remarking that I seemed sometimes to be 
getting the shadow of what was going to be. 
Now when in my own sphere it is easy to 
distinguish between a thing and its thought- 
form, but when I am working on your plane 
it 1s not so easy to tell the difference. For 
example, on getting a thought from your mind 
I may be uncertain whether it relates to 
something already done, or to something you 
intend doing. I find myself helped or hindered 
by conditions in obtaining these tests. Recol- 
lect what was previously said about “the 
coming event casting its shadow before,” and 
also about the “etheric duplicate.” I will 
investigate further.’ 


The above was given through Feda, but later 
207 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


in the sitting, when my father was controlling, he 
again alluded to the subject, and said:— 


‘When the test items are chosen they are 
not yet existing in the form they will have 
taken when the paper is published, and so 
I have to put myself in a position to know 
that which wi// be, rather than that which is. 
You will naturally wish to learn how I can be 
aware of the position these items will assume — 
on the printed page? Of course my cal- 
culations may be wrong or the positions may 
be changed subsequently. I am able to sense 
what appear to me to be sheets and slips of 
paper with names and various information 
upon them. I notice suitable items and, 
afterwards, visualise a duplicate of the page 
with these items falling into their places. At 
first [ was unable to do this. It seems to me 
that it 1s an ability which throws some light 
upon foretelling, a visualising of what zs to be, 
but based upon that which already is. Now 
suppose I wished to give the name “‘ Thomas ” 
as a test; unless it were already upon some 
paper at the office I should not be able to 
get it. But should I discover that it is among 
the names received for insertion, I next attempt 
to visualise it in the position which it is to take 
upon the page in question.’ 


I then asked :— 


‘How can you ascertain whether the name 
has reached the office ?’ 


He said:— 


‘I think I get it from the letters, for I 
208 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


certainly seem to see many pieces of paper 
and to obtain many things from them. But 
the important operation is the subsequent 
visualising. Should this theory of mine be 
right, I think it will presently be demonstrated 
by examination of these tests; for it should 
be possible to give items verifiable from the 
paper for the next day but one.’ 


I asked :-— 


“Do you think that could be done with 


advertisements which had not yet reached the 
office ?’ 


He replied :— 


‘It might be more difficult. But to return 
to my method; I get information that certain 
words will be used, for I sense them on the 
premises. Frequently I have sensed a few 
items from letters and then visualised the 
paper, when they fell into position; and 
sometimes I see further detail upon visualising 
which I had not sensed from the letters. 
These latter seem to come in as an afterthought, 
but are usually connected with the primary 
items. Suppose I got ‘“ Charles,” and then 
visualised it as appearing at the top of column 
two; I might also get a name “ D”’ close by 
it, of which I had not been conscious previously, 
but which appears to me now owing to its 
being connected with the “ Charles” adver- 
tisement. This is most difficult to explain.’ 


In the early period it was supposed by both of 
us that the later the hour of the sitting the more 
209 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


accurate would be the tests. Experience, however, 
modified this view, and it became apparent that 
there were other conditions of success far more 
important than the time of day. In March, 1921, 
my father said :— 


‘I think there 1s little difference whether 
your sitting is in the afternoon or evening, 
for my conclusion is that I do not obtain the 
tests from the actual preparations for printing. 
What I certainly know 1s, that, when I go to 
the office, whether earlier or later, I can feel 
that certain matter 1s there and that its position 
in the paper will be so-and-so. Although I 
use the word “ feel,’ yet it is also a ‘‘ seeing.” 
Consider how with sensation on earth all is 
feeling first, but if carried further, conscious- 
ness reaches the stage of seeing and hearing. 
Men say, “‘I see,’ when they grasp an idea. 
They imply that they see with the mind’s eye. 
I think that what I experience is an extension 
of that. But remember it is imperative that 
I have something upon which to work, for I 
cannot see with my mind’s eye a condition 
which is not present there. I can only see or 
feel that for which there is a foundation.’ 


During our last conversation, before the writing 
of this chapter, the subject was further alluded to, 
consequent upon my saying that curiosity had been 
expressed as to how the Times tests were obtained. 


My father replied :— 


‘I fear that nothing you may say will 
enable a full comprehension; for they are 
210 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


done by a process not easy for those on earth 
to follow, and which relates to “a near future 
which is a present,” somewhat symbolised by 
the shadow seen of a man round a corner. 
I think there is an etheric foreshadowing—if 
one may use the expression—of things about 
to be done. Remember that, although the 
words may not be yet in type, some one’s 
thoughts are on them, some one has formulated 
the wording of the notices sent to the office 
for insertion. I used to remark, when giving 
book tests, that it was easier to sense books 
that had been read, for it seemed as though 
the reader’s thought remained in the book, 
possibly in some auric form; but should you 
begin to explain shat to people generally, 
they would not understand it. On the whole, 
I think the method used for newspaper tests 
may be said to depend upon “an ability to 
psychometrise the ever-present NOW.” Not 
every spirit could do this; it is a power which 
has to be developed. 


I inquired :-— 


* How do you get the exact position of the 
word you want ?’ 


He replied :— 


‘ By a slight extension of what I have just 
tried to describe. It would probably be 
impossible to get anything very far ahead, 
but only within a certain number of hours, 
and I cannot say how many.’ 

2zI 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 
I said :— 


‘Perhaps you can only obtain such infor- 
mation as has already arrived at the office ?’ 


He answered :-— 


‘Possibly something might be got from 
an advertisement on its way to the office, if 
the sender were thinking strongly of it at 
the time when I was there selecting tests; for 
like attracts like, and a certain degree of link 
would have been formed for me by my con- 
tact with the advertisements already at the 
office. It is all very interesting. I scarcely 
think it would be possible to get a test for the 
day after the morrow, or, even if possible, 
that it could result in more than a jumble of 
the morrow’s with a few of the day following. 


Upon my repeating a previously asked question 
as to whether he felt the words and occasionally 
also saw them, he replied that this was a sufficiently 
correct description of what seemed to him to be a 
crystallising or materialising of thought. 

The above extracts and summaries may suffice 
to indicate the trend of many conversations we have 
had upon the subject. Students may complain 
that too little information has been laid before 
them, while others will doubtless have taken 
advantage of their right to skip less interesting 
portions. A third class of critic may be too polite 
to express their opinion, but I naturally assume 
that some will take the easy path by assuring 
themselves that this chapter describes merely the 

212 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


manner in which I have been bluffed by the medium. 
If these should be open to considerations of logic, 
they are asked to recollect that, during two years, 
I have held some twenty-four conversations with 
my communicator upon this phase of the subject, 
and in these talks I was not asking him to pro- 
pound theories, but merely to explain accomplished 
facts. 

Certain information given the previous day was 
found accurate in the Public Press next morning. 
My notes were posted overnight and are retained 
by the Society for Psychical Research. Those 
notes may be compared with the issues of the Times 
to which they refer by any who desire to make 
the verification for themselves. The proportion of 
success obtained presents a striking and inexplic- 
able phenomenon, one that is, I think, unique in the 
history of psychic studies, and one that challenges 
inquiry as to how it was accomplished. No theories 
of fraud or collusion can be maintained in face of the 
hundreds of tests received during the years following 
October, 1919, and a consideration of their relevancy 
to things not within the medium’s knowledge. 
They must be either ignored or considered in their 
bearing upon extra-mundane agency. My com- 
municator asserts that they were specially devised 
to compel recognition of the latter. He is aware of 
the argument that the medium may have developed 
a faculty of seeing at a distance, and has therefore 
taken pains to give sufficient tests of such a character 
as to compel a different explanation, tests involving 
his memory of days long past. Of these he says,— 

213 


Newspaper Tests as Viewed from the Other Side 


‘I think they should impress people more 
than book tests. If I came here and confined 
myself to giving my recollections, it might be 
put down to telepathy from your mind. But 
since I refer you to the morrow’s paper for 
items which accord with what is told you here, 
it becomes clear that telepathy cannot explain; 
you find in the paper that for which you seek, 
but given in a form which you did not expect 
and about which you could, in the nature of 
the case, have known nothing. ‘Two sets of 
memory are combined to produce them, my 
memories of long ago, and my memory of 
what I found this morning among preparations 
for the Press.’ 


214 


CHAPTER XXxXI 
THE IDENTITY OF THE COMMUNICATOR 


Tue transmission of names through Feda presents 
considerable difficulty, for notwithstanding brilliant 
successes in which a fresh name has been caught 
correctly, she usually shows some hesitancy and 
bewilderment, whether the name is being communi- 
cated to her by sound or by its spelling; in fact, 
we usually save time by taking the initial letter 
and leaving it at that, trusting to time or the 
context to throw further light. But by the news- 
paper method it is not necessary for Feda to know 
the name required; she transmits a description 
showing where it can be found in the Times next 
morning, together with such statements as define 
the person with whom the name 1s linked for the 
occasion. In this way we have in a large number 
of instances been able quite easily to get the name 
required. 

During the two and a half years of investigation 
which preceded the appearance of newspaper tests, 
the communicator had abundantly proved to me that 
I was really in communication with my father, and 
that I was neither misled by an easy credulity nor 
victimised by impersonation. With the advent 
of this new type of evidence I quickly noticed how 
skilfully it was used to give additional proof of 

215 


The Identity of the Communicator 


identity. The ‘ Leek tests’ will be remembered 
in this connection; but even before the date of the 
first of those references, in fact from the beginning 
of the series, I had received messages involving 
intimate knowledge of family names, present and 
past, such as no stranger could easily obtain. 

Many of these will have been noticed among 
the instances previously given; their number is 
considerable, and the following may suffice to 
illustrate the general character of the whole. Brief 
notes are appended showing the relevancy of each 
test together with its verification. 

There are retained, here and there, incidental 
items which have little interest save their accurately 
foretold position in relation to others which they 
serve to link together. 


October 10th, 1919, at 3 p.m. 
This was the sitting at which the newspaper tests 
commenced. ‘They were to be verified from the 
first page of the Times for the following day. Among 


them was the following :— 


‘He has the idea that soap is mentioned at 
the top of the page.’ 


As the word ‘soap’ did not appear upon this 
page, I concluded that the test had failed. At the 
next sitting I made some remarks about the general 
success of the newspaper tests, but did not allude 
to this particular one until Feda inquired if there 
had not been an item described as near the top of 

210 


The Identity of the Communicator 


the page? I said, ‘Yes, a mention of soap, but 
that one failed.’ 
She continued :— 


‘ He says it was the name of a famous soap- 
maker; he sensed it, and so did not know 
whether soap was mentioned or some name 
suggesting soap; he was just reminded of it.’ 


Twenty years previously we had known a family, 
some members of whom were engaged in the 
manufacture of soap. We had been interested 
in hearing details of the process, and in after years 
any reference to that well-known firm brought to 
mind our associations with this family. Looking 
again at the paper, J discovered this family name 
prominent among notices at the top of the first column. 
May it not be an instance of mental association, 
the familiar name bringing to my communicator 
the idea of soap which was so strongly linked in 
our minds with that family? At the next sitting 
after this, I put a question :— 


‘There was a name in the paper which is 
that of a soap-manufacturer, but can he say 
anything more as to what he connects with 
that name ?’ 


Feda replied :— 


“It does not suggest soap now, but in a 
time gone by. Not some one’s soap, but 
some one whom he knew when on earth and 
knew well.’ 

E.H.S. 217 Q 


The Identity of the Communicator 
I asked :— 


‘Where and who?’ 
The reply was:— 
‘Yes, he knows, but cannot get it through.’ 


The interest of these answers centres around the 
fact that a lady of this name, and related to the soap- 
manufacturers, had been engaged to a member of 
our family. We all knew her well during the years 
1897 to 1900. Apart from this family, we had 
known no one connected with soap manufacture. 

At this sitting the number of tests given for 
verification ‘from the morrow’s Times was six. Of 
these four were found to be correct, one was 
inconclusive, and one failed. 


November 21st, 1919, at 3 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the front page of the morrow’s Times was thirteen. 
Result: Correct 6; Inconclusive 1; Failure 6. 
After allusion to something one-third down the 
second column, the test continued :— 


“ Also in the near vicinity is the name of a 
place in which Mr. Hine resided.’ 


We had been conversing at a previous sitting 
about this gentleman who, forty years ago, was 
the personal friend of my father, and a prominent 
official in his church at Baldock in Hertfordshire. 
As he had long aga removed to London, I was 

218 


The Identity of the Communicator 


uncertain which place might be intended, and was 
interested next morning to find at the top of the 
second column the old and familiar address, 


Baldock, Herts. 


February 27th, 1920, at 3.30 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the front page of the morrow’s Times was eleven. 
Result: Correct 4; Inconclusive 6; Failure 1. 


‘About the middle of column one there is 
named a place of which your mother was very 
fond in her girlhood. She spent very happy 
times there, and may remember two elderly 
ladies there.’ 


At the spot named occurs ‘J. of W.’ The Isle 
of Wight was my mother’s native place: the two 
elderly ladies were my mother’s mother and aunt. 


‘Quite close is a name suggesting music 
to him.’ 


Two inches below is the name Harper, which 
may be thought of as one who plays upon the 
harp. It served to link the previous test with the 
following. 


“Near this is his own name, and very close 
indeed, probably in the same advertisement, is 
the name of a near relative of your wife’s, 
one who has passed over.’ 


In the advertisement next above Harper is 
219 


The Identity of the Communicator 


Thomas, and also Frances. My wife has an aunt 
Frances, now passed over. 


‘ Fold the page across so as to divide it into 
equal halves right and left, and in the first 
complete column beyond the crease, to the 
right, and less than a quarter down, is a message 
from him to your mother.’ (I asked, ‘ How 
shall I be sure which it is?’) ‘ Close to it is 
a name or initials which would fit very well.’ 


Exactly where stated is an advertisement in 
which occur the words, Portland . . . Anxious to 
get in touch, and in the adjoining parallel advertise- 
ment is the following line twice repeated: LW. 
and D. and IW.T. All this fits peculiarly well. 
One of my father’s early circuits was Portland; 
we always think of it in connection with things 
he told us about his residence there, and we have 
no associations with it apart from him. ‘That he 
is anxious to get in touch with my mother is clear 
from his frequent allusions and messages to her 
in these sittings. ‘The initials are applicable. His 
name was Drayton, and when living in the Isle 
of Wight he married, and my mother’s maiden 
name was Dore. ‘Thus the initials may be 
interpreted either as ‘ Isle of Wight and Drayton, 
and Isle of Wight and Thomas,’ or, indicating 
my mother’s change of name there, ‘ Isle of Wight 
and Dore, and Isle of Wight and Thomas.’ So 
it will be seen that the initials and the place-name 
are equally suitable as the directions indicated they 
would be. 

220 


The Identity of the Communicator 


August 13th, 1920, at 5.55 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the front page of the morrow’s Times was nine. 
Result: Correct 5; Inconclusive 4. 
Following a test to be found a little way down 
column two:— 


‘A little lower is the name of one of the 
first places where they lived after his marriage. 
He likes these tests which go back some time 
and require thinking out.’ 


Three inches lower in the parallel column 1s 
Victoria, the name of his first church and locality 
after marriage. The name had appeared previously 
in these tests (see page 95), where it was connected 
with my birthplace. 


August 20th, 1920, at 7.20 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the front page of the morrow’s Times was eight. 
Result: Correct 6; Inconclusive 2. 


‘A little below half-way down column one 
is the name of some people whom your mother 
has lately seen. The word “seen” is not 
quite appropriate, say “ been reminded of ”’ 
or “been in contact with.” Your father 
knew these people when on earth.’ 


The name Georgina appears in the place desig- 
nated. It is the name of a lady who is one of my 
parents’ oldest friends, and she had been staying 
with my mother a few weeks previously. The use 

221 


The Identity of the Communicator 


of the plural is appropriate, as the visit was arranged 
by correspondence with the lady’s daughter, who 
was also a friend of my father. As far back as I 
can remember, we always alluded to this lady as 
‘ Georgie,’ short for Georgina, her proper name. 


September 3rd, 1920, at 3.45 p.m. 

The number of tests given for verification from 
the first page of the morrow’s Times was six. 

Result: Correct 4; Inconclusive 2. 

Before giving these tests there was an unsuccessful 
effort to tell me the surname of a minister who had 
worked with my father. The name was given as 
the Rey. Benjamin B , but Feda could not 
catch the final name in full. When I asked for 
the locality in which they had worked together, I 
was informed that this, and also the surname, were 
to be made the subjects of tests. Towards the 
close of the sitting my father, while controlling, 
gave the name as ‘ Browne.” We remember the 
Rev. Benjamin Browne, in conjunction with whom 
my father carried through an important educational 
enterprise about the year 1884. In our family, 
when referring to this gentleman, it had been 
our almost invariable custom to use both names, 
Benjamin Browne. This test was phrased as 
follows :— 





“In column one and about one-third down 
is the surname of the Reverend Benjamin.’ 


It appears just below half-way down in the Rev. 
Benson-Brown. 
222 


The Identity of the Communicator 


‘He is not quite sure about the following, 
as he did not see, but sensed it. Lower in 
this column he thinks there is named the 
place very near to which we knew the above. 
It may even be the name of the very place, 
but if not it is just as good, as it is so close; 
yet he hopes it may prove to be the right 
name.’ 


Low in this column, less than an inch from the 
bottom, appears Kent. We lived in Kent when 
first knowing this minister, who then resided at 


Margate. 


October Ist, 1920, at 4.12 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the first page of the morrow’s Times was eleven. 
Result: Correct 4; Inconclusive 3; Failure 4. 


“About one-quarter down column two is 
the name George.’ 


This is correct. 


“A name looking like Ratcliffe is close to 
it. He knew one of that name.’ 


In 1896-7 my father devoted considerable atten- 
tion to matters of Connexional Law on behalf of 
one of his church workers named Ratcliffe, con- 
cerning whose status in the church there was an 
acute controversy. He often alluded to the matter 
in later years, as it was one of the outstanding 
incidents in his ministerial career. ‘The name 

223 


The Identity of the Communicator 


appears one inch lower than ‘George’ in the 
parallel column, viz., column one. 


‘A quarter down column three; near this 
is reference to writing, either words or some- 
thing amounting to the same thing.’ 


Commencing one-quarter down column three 
the word Write occurs five times within the space 
of three inches. 

At an early period of this sitting reference had 
been made to a relation named Norah, and it. was 
said that this name would be introduced among 
the tests for the day. Only when typing out my 
notes did [ realise that this test had been omitted. 
At the next sitting, therefore, I mentioned the 
omission, saying :— 


‘When I asked about Norah during our 
previous sitting, you said that the name was 
being introduced in that day’s tests; but it 
was not mentioned.’ 


The following reply was given without hesita- 
tion :— 


‘There was a test in which Norah should 
have figured. I had intended to give it. The 
name came in the second column, and I think 
it was nearly half-way down.’ 


It is exactly 24 inches short of half-way down 
column two. Here we have a hint that communi- 
cators may forget to give some of the items with 
which they come prepared. 


224 


The Identity of the Communicator 


January 7th, 1921, at 6.50 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the first page of the morrow’s Times was nine. 
Result: Correct 7; Failure 2. 
After a reference to something in the upper 
part of column two, he added:— 


* Quite close is my name and that of another 
on my side the family.’ 


Exactly an inch above a quarter down this 
column, and in the same notice, appear the names 
John (his own name) and Mary (his sister’s). 


‘In column one, three-quarters down, is 
the name of a place in which we lived some 
years ago; but given in connection with it 
is the name of a friend who did not live in 
that place, but in one where we had lived 
previously.’ 


Exactly where described appears Louisa, and, 
immediately beneath it, Herts. We resided in 
Hertfordshire in 1876-8, after leaving Leek, at 
which latter place lived Louisa, my father’s mother. 
The phrasing of this test again illustrates Feda’s 
way of terming counties ‘ places,’ and relations 
‘friends,’ unless the communicator happens to 
notice the slip and correct it. 

After giving a test one-quarter down column 
five, Feda continued :— 


‘Lower in that column there seemed to be 
225 


The Identity of the Communicator 


a reference to a place abroad, about which he 
and your mother had conversed when he was 
on earth.’ 


This might seem a rather vague description, but 
it was verified by the names Australia and Sydney 
coming immediately beneath the preceding test- 
words. ‘There had once been much discussion of 
Sydney, Australia, when a family connection, who 
lived there, visited England and spent a holiday 
with us. He was our only link with the place. 


January 20th, 1921, at 3.45 p.m. 
The number of tests given for verification from 
the first page of the morrow’s Times was nine. 
Result: Correct 8; Inconclusive 1. 
After an allusion to something three inches 
down the third column of the usual front page of 
the Times, he proceeded :— 


“A little above is a name which was well 
known in the family in former days, and just 
about the same place is a name given in 
abbreviated form, one well known in the 
family too.’ 


This is perfectly met by the name Benjamin, 
which appears one inch from the top of column 
three, and by the letter ‘C’ in the top line. It is 
a capital ‘C’ standing by itself, and evidently 
intended to represent a person’s name. We have 
long used it thus: an allusion to ‘C’ would be 
instantly understood in our family circle. 

226 


The Identity of the Communicator 


‘In the upper part of column two is named 
a place in which you lived when you were 
connected with conditions in which Margaret 
would be specially interested.’ 


Two inches from the top is J. of W. When 
living at Newport, I. of W., I was engaged in the 
same kind of business as that pursued by my Aunt 
Margaret’s father in his earlier life. There 1s 
clear hint of identity here; for it was only by 
referring to family letters that I discovered this 
fact about my Aunt Margaret’s father, whereas 
it would have been'well known to my father. 


‘Very close is named a second place, which 
you knew well when living at the first place; 
you would go to it, hear of it, and think of it.’ 


The next word was Ventnor, and the statement 
about it is correct. 


I shall be reminded by the credulous and timid 
that the parade of names culled from books of 
reference, or collected by diligent inquiry, is a 
favourite device of impostors and impersonators on 
earth, and may be similarly used by such persons 
when they pass into the next stage of existence 
_and seek to enliven its hours by playing tricks 
upon those who try to communicate with their 
loved ones through mediums. These timid critics 
usually know nothing by first-hand experience, 

227 


The Identity of the Communicator 


but belong to the ‘fearful and unbelieving’ class, 
to whom discovery and advance in any department 
of human activity owes little or nothing. Their 
imagination pictures devils who would seem to be 
exceedingly wise and capable, while ‘the spirits 
of just men made perfect’ are made to appear 
inactive or impotent. They grant too little scope 
for the strength of healthy intelligence and personal 
affection in the affairs of both worlds, putting a 
trust which is almost pathetic in their own imagin- 
ings and reserving too little for the Ruler of the 
Universe, whose name is Love and who gives His 
angels charge concerning us. ‘The incident con- 
nected with our Lord’s transfiguration is not 
allowed its due weight with them; they are upon 
much more congenial ground with the text, ‘We 
are not ignorant of his devices.’ 

Neither in Scripture nor in experience is there 
basis for supposing that agents of evil are omniscient. 
Give them sufficient scope and they reveal them- 
selves in due course; deceit cannot be kept up 
indefinitely. 

My communicator has consistently transmitted 
messages (or spoken them himself when dispensing 
with Feda’s aid) for more than five years, during 
which time we have had one hundred conversa- 
tions of about two hours each. I say ‘ consistently,’ 
meaning that he has spoken as my father would 
speak, whether referring to his days on earth, his 
friends, my work and surroundings, or his own 
aspirations. The personality rings true, and in 
the many slight touches and turns of thought, 

228 


The Identity of the Communicator 


which cannot easily be reproduced in print, there 
is nothing which jars upon the sensitive perception 
of close relationship. 

The additional evidence of identity afforded by 
the advent of newspaper test-messages could easily 
be displayed at such length as to weary all but the 
most determined readers. Perhaps sufficient has 
been given to explain the conviction that I am in 
touch with my own father. As month followed 
month, and scarcely a sitting passed without refer- 
ences to names, correctly indicated, revealing a 
knowledge of our friends such as I should expect 
my father to retain, my impression steadily 
strengthened that no one but he could have 
devised these tests. 

It is not the case that a number of names are 
given on the chance that some of them may be 
appropriate ; there is no ‘fishing’ for names, no 
vague suggestions such as might be applicable to 
almost any sitter; my communicator evidences an 
intimate knowledge of our relations and friends, 
and succeeds by means of this new type of test in 
introducing numbers of names that had neither 
been transmitted previously nor mentioned in the 
hearing of the medium when awake. 

The impression made upon me has been cumu- 
lative and logically compelling. JI am convinced 
that it is no other than my own father who has 
repeatedly succeeded in giving proof positive of his 
identity. 


229 


CHAPTER XXII 


CONCLUDING REMARKS UPON THE EVIDENCE AFFORDED 
BY NEWSPAPER TESTS, AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE 


Ir will have been noticed that while some of these 
tests are mere statements of what will be in the 
morrow’s Press, others go beyond this and reveal 
intimate acquaintance with our family, and recol- 
lections of my father’s earthly life. TTelepathy-from- 
the-living is a theory which breaks down in face of 
these experiments. Could any such hypothesis 
explain the method by which knowledge of our 
relations, and recollections of long ago, became 
interwoven with forecasts from the next day’s 
newspaper ? 

_ It is certain that many of these forecasts have 
been correct, but whether they were obtained by 
normal or super-normal means is not the chief 
question; for a further line of information is 
apparent, information upon matters which even 
unimpeded access to the offices of the Times could 
not give, and which the medium can scarcely be 
supposed to possess. 

The problem is this: How do these two streams 
of knowledge become merged ? 

There is cumulative evidence by which I am 
logically compelled to the conclusion that the 
intelligence, who communicates with me through 

230 


Concluding Remarks upon the Evidence 


Mrs. Leonard, succeeds in obtaining items from 
the preparations for the next day’s paper, and, 
already possessing full knowledge of our family 
history, composes an amalgam of the two for the 
very definite purpose of demonstrating his 
identity. 

It may also be said of these newspaper tests, as of 
the book tests which preceded them, that they were 
introduced by intelligence other than our own, and 
neither asked for nor anticipated by us. They 
reveal that complete remembrance of family and 
other names which we should expect our friends to 
retain, but which the limitations and confusions of 
ordinary trance mediumship afford them but small 
opportunity of demonstrating. 

It is important to realise the relation between 
these tests and other parts of the conversation taking 
place during Mrs, Leonard’s trance. ‘These tests 
occupy but a small fraction of the two hours’ talk, 
yet they serve the important use of giving presump- 
tive evidence that the unverifiable matters alluded 
to so freely are not dream-utterances of Mrs, 
Leonard’s mind. Since evidential matter proves 
correct, one may presume that the unevidential 
portions are, broadly, accurate also, since they 
originate from the same source. 

These intimate talks with my father afford 
frequent evidence that he is in close touch with 
my doings and thoughts, as well as with those of 
his friends still on earth. They often yield fresh 
proofs of his identity. They give him opportunity 
to explain some of the difficulties which attend 

231 


Concluding Remarks upon the Evidence 


verbal communication between the two worlds, 
and they consequently offer a hope of lessening 
these, by facilitating a fuller understanding of the 
laws by which such communication takes place. 
Wise counsels, such as a father might be expected 
to offer, in view of his wider survey of life and its 
meaning, are given from time to time, together 
with encouragement and suggestion in relation to 
my work. He also attempts to describe the occu- 
pations and felicity of his present state. Occasionally 
he assists newly-arrived spirits to communicate with 
their relations whom I may have taken with me for 
that purpose; in this way we have been able to 
bring consolation and happiness to sorrowing lives, 
and incidentally to furnish additional proof of the 
possibility of communicating with the departed. 
On account of the intense interest of my con- 
versations with those on life’s Other Side and its 
reaction, wholly refreshing and uplifting, upon 
everyday life, I often find myself wishing that these 
experiences could be shared by others, and especially 
by those who, like myself, are engaged in Christian 
and philanthropic work. But, for the present, it 
seems inevitable that the many who have no oppor- 
tunities must be content to learn from the few who 
enjoy facilities for this study. Into the causes 
responsible for the scarcity of opportunity I need 
not here enter; they are such as may in time be 
remedied, and the spread of accurate knowledge 
will be a step towards this achievement. 
Meanwhile there come unsought, to one here and 
there, experiences which are startling or puzzling, 
232 


and its Significance 


illuminating or terrifying, according to the indi- 
viduality of the receiver. It may be suspected 
that the psychic gifts in the observer, which make 
these spontaneous phenomena possible, would facili- 
tate direct communication with the next world, 
were such communication desired and sought by 
appropriate methods. 

Others are naturally so endowed with psychic 
gifts that they enjoy, throughout their lives, some 
measure of visual, auditory, or impressional contact 
with that spiritual environment to which the five 
senses are unresponsive. Such people are usually 
sufficiently discreet to speak little of these experi- 
ences, and then only to understanding and sym- 
pathetic friends, else would the world be astonished 
to learn how much of communication comes direct 
and even unsought. 

There is yet one other class of persons who have 
touch with the life above us, a touch which is wholly 
spiritual and rarely, if ever, takes form in vision, 
word, or other physical manifestation. I allude to 
those enjoying a sense of communion with a Higher 
Intelligence. Often it takes the form of guidance 
when they are in perplexity; of uplift and comfort 
in times of sorrow; or, best of all, the realisation 
of peace and harmony in their relation to the Deity. 
It is the experience desired for all Christian people 
in the words of the Benediction: the fellowship of 
the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore. Amen. 

In this highest experience we have communion 
rather than communication. It 1s certain that verbal 
communication may be had with those spirits who 

E HS. 233 R 


Concluding Remarks upon the Evidence 


are our own friends ascended to the next stage of 
life in the realms unseen by human eye; yet such 
intercourse by words is only possible under circum- 
stances, the laws of which are as yet too little 
investigated and understood. But the wordless 
communion which innumerable people experience, 
whether with the Spirit of their Master, or with 
‘the spirits of just men made perfect,’ their arisen 
friends and guardian angels, is, one believes, within 
the reach of every man who humbly, and in prayerful 
trust, seeks the experience. 

Tennyson’s allusion to this communion with his 


friend Arthur H. Hallam may be recalled:— 


‘I shall not see thee. Dare I say 
No spirit ever brake the band 
That stays him from the native land, 
Where first he walk’d when claspt in clay ? 


No visual shade of some one lost, 
But he, the Spirit himself, may come 
Where all the nerve of sense is numb; 
Spirit to Spirit, Ghost to Ghost. 


O, therefore from thy sightless range 
With gods in unconjectured bliss, 
O, from the distance of the abyss 
Of tenfold-complicated change, 


Descend, and touch, and enter; hear 
The wish too strong for words to name; 
That in this blindness of the frame 
My Ghost may feel that thine is near.’ 
234 


and its Significance 


And in the stanza next following (xcmr Jz 
Memoriam) is given sage counsel respecting the state 
of mind and emotion essential for such communion :— 


* How pure at heart and sound in head, 
With what divine affections bold 
Should be the man whose thought would 
hold 


An hour’s communion with the dead. 


In vain shalt thou, or any, call 
The spirits from their golden day, 
Except, like them, thou too canst say, 
My spirit is at peace with all. 


They haunt the silence of the breast, 
Imaginations calm and fair, 
The memory like a cloudless air, 
The conscience as a sea at rest: 


But when the heart is full of din, 
And doubt beside the portal waits, 
They can but listen at the gates, 
And hear the household jar within.’ 


Wordless communion is for all, verbal communi- 
cations are, at present, within the reach of few. 

The peaceful mind, looking to heaven with 
adoration and trust, and regarding earth with a 
practical love that gives service, sympathy and 
hope for all—such interior condition facilitates that 
spiritual communion which is the highest and the 
best, and which brings its own demonstration of 
immortality to those experiencing its joy. 

235 


Concluding Remarks upon the Evidence 


The verbal communications treated of in this 
book are another thing, doubtless a much lesser 
thing, and yet of a value to life and religion all too 
little realised by the Churches. I am well aware 
that many Christians who read these pages will 
think that my proofs are unnecessary to them; for 
since they already possess something better, they 
can take on trust all I set forth to prove. There 
are, however, innumerable persons to whom the 
experience of, or even the belief in, verbal communi- 
cation with departed friends would bea step towards 
the realisation of that higher communion of which 
I have speken. Assurance of the possibility of 
communication would remove mental uncertainties, 
and afford a strong incentive to endeavours after 
that communion which is found by those who seek 
in sincerity, seeing that ‘ He is not far from each 
one of us; for in Him we live, and move, and have 
our being.’ 

The fact of having spoken with friends who have 
left earth refreshes and enlarges one’s conviction 
of the possibilities of communion with the Master 
who left earth some nineteen centuries ago, and 
who encouraged His followers to keep in touch 
with Him, promising that on His part He would 
not fail to keep in touch with them. Faith in the 
activity and interest of the One is revivified by 
demonstrations of the activity and affectionate 
interest of the many who have followed Him into 
Realms Unseen. 

It has been said by ignorant and timid people 
that psychic studies are hurtful. The obvious 

236 


and its Significance 


reply is that the result depends upon the student’s 
character. Nothing is so good that it may not be 
put to evil uses; no environment so pure but an 
evil mind may resist it. Judas had the companion- 
ship of Jesus and listened to his incomparable 
teaching, yet he came to harm even in his Master’s 
presence. The pure in heart, while enlightened 
by accurate knowledge, are safe anywhere; but 
such as entertain evil thought and motive are safe 
nowhere. Having obeyed the apostolic injunction 
to ‘try the spirits,’ | humbly thank God for the 
high result on my interior life, and here assert for 
the encouragement of others that I have derived 
nothing but benefit. Trust in God and goodwill 
to men have not diminished, but increased. 

In conclusion, it remains to be indicated in what 
relation the subject-matter of this book stands to 
the ever-increasing volume of evidence for spirit- 
communion which has been contributed in recent 
years from all parts of the civilised world, and in 
the light of which many curious records in ancient 
history may be more clearly understood. I regard 
book and newspaper tests as a further addition to 
the ‘signs and wonders’ by which many in the 
next life are endeavouring to attract the attention 
of mortals to the reality of their life and to the true 
meaning of our temporary existence on earth. 
Extended knowledge would surely transform the 
conventional ideas about death, and inspire greater 
desire to live in harmony with the wise purposes 
of the Infinite One who, fatherlike, watches over 
each and all in this world and the next. 

237 


APPENDIX A 


REFERENCES PAST AND PRESENT TO ALLIED 
PHENOMENA 


A.THoUGH the development of book tests is recent, 
yet the underlying idea dates back at least as far 
as the experiments of Sir William Crookes and of 
the Rev. W. Stainton Moses. 

The former, in his Notes of an Inquiry into the 
Phenomena called Spiritual, wrote as follows :— 

‘A lady was writing automatically by means of 
the planchette. I was trying to devise a means of 
proving that what she wrote was not due to “ un- 
conscious cerebration.” The planchette, as it 
always does, insisted that, although it was moved 
by the hand and arm of the lady, the zutelligence 
was that of an invisible being who was playing on 
her brain as on a musical instrument, and thus 
moving her muscles. I therefore said to this 
intelligence, “‘Can you see the contents of this 
room f.’?)"" Yes,” wrote the), planchettesti0\ Gas 
you see to read this newspaper ?”’ said I, putting 
my finger on a copy of the Times, which was on a 
table behind me, but without looking at it. “‘ Yes,” 
was the reply of the planchette. ‘‘ Well,” I said, 
‘if you can see that, write the word which is now 
covered by my finger, and I will believe you.” 
The planchette commenced to move. Slowly 

238 


Appendix 


and with difficulty, the word “ however” was 
written. I turned round and saw that the word 
‘ however” was covered by the tip of my finger. 
I had purposely avoided looking at the newspaper 
when I tried the experiment, and it was impossible 
for the lady, had she tried, to have seen any of 
the printed words, for she was sitting at one 
table, and the paper was on another table behind, 
my body intervening.’ This was first published 
in the Quarterly Fournal of Science for January, 
1874. 


Spirit Teachings (Memorial Edition), published 
by the London Spiritualist Alliance, Ltd., London, 
pp. 31-3, records a book test given to Stainton 
Moses through his own automatic writing in the 
year 1873. he reference is as follows:— 

‘] inquired how it was possible to give informa- 
tion so minute. It was said to be extremely difficult, 
possible only when an extremely passive and 
receptive state in the medium was secured. More- 
over, spirits were said to have access to sources 
of information, so that they could refresh their 
imperfect recollection. 

‘I asked how? By reading; under certain 
conditions, and with special end in view; or by 
inquiry, as man does, only to spirits it would be 
more difficult, though possible. 

‘Could my friend himself so acquire information ? 
No; he had too long left the earth, but he mentioned 
the names of two spirits accustomed occasionally 
to write, who could perform this feat. I asked 

239 


Appendix 


that one of them should be brought. I was sitting 
waiting for a pupil in a room, not my own, which 
was used as a study, and the walls of which were 
covered with bookshelves. 

‘The writing ceased, and after an interval of 
some minutes another kind of writing appeared. 
I inquired if the newly arrived spirit could demon- 
strate to me the power alleged. 

‘Can you read? 

‘No, friend, I cannot, but Zachery Gray can, 
and Rector. I am not able to materialise myself, 
or to command the elements. 

‘ Are either of those spirits here ? 

‘] will bring one by-and-by. I will send... . 
Rector is here. 

‘TI am told you can read. Is that sof Can you 
read a book? 

‘(Spirit handwriting changed.) 

‘Yes, friend, with difficulty. 

‘Will you write for me the last line of the first 
book of the AEneid ? 

‘ ‘Wait—Omnibus errantem terris et fluctibus aestas. 

‘(This was right.) 

“Quite so. But I might have known it. Can 
you go to the bookcase, take the last book but one 
on the second shelf, and read me the last paragraph 
on the ninety-fourth page? I have not seen it, 
and do not even know its name. 

‘<Y will curtly prove, by a short historical narra- 
tive, that popery is a novelty, and has gradually 
arisen or grown up since the primitive and pure 
time of Christianity, not only since the apostolic 

240 


Appendix 


age, but even since the lamentable union of kirk 
and the state by Constantine.” 

‘(The book on examination then proved to be a 
queer one called Rogers’ Antipopriestian, an attempt 
to liberate and purify Christianity from Popery, Politi- 
kirkality, and Priestrule. The extract given above 
was accurate, but the word “ narrative’’ was 
substituted for “ account.’’) 

* How came I to pitch on so appropriate a sentence? 

‘I know not, my friend. It was by coincidence. 
The word was changed by error. I knew it when 
it was done, but would not change. 

‘How do you read? You wrote more slowly, 
and by fits and starts. 

‘I wrote what I remembered, and then I went 
for more. It is a special effort to read, and useful 
only as a test. Your friend was right last night : 
we can read, but only when conditions are very good. 
We will read once again, and write, and then 
impress you of the book: “‘ Pope is the last great 
writer of that school of poetry, the poetry of the 
intellect, or rather of the intellect mingled with 
the fancy.” That is truly written. Go and take 
the eleventh book on the same shelf. (I took a 
book called Poetry, Romance, and Rhetoric.) It 
will open at the page for you. ‘Take it and read, 
and recognise our power, and the permission which 
the great and good God gives us, to show you of 
our power over matter. To Him be glory. Amen. 

‘(The book opened at page 145, and there was 
the quotation perfectly true. I had not seen the 
book before; certainly had no idea of its contents.) ’ 

241 


Appendix 


The Fournal of the American Society for Psychical 
Research, Vol. VIII, 1914, page 413, contains the 
translation of a paper read by Dr. Geley before 
a meeting of the French Society for Psychical 
Research, presided over at the time by Camille 
Flammarion. The paper deals with the subject of 
cross-correspondences, but the incident epitomised 
below bears closely upon the problem of book tests. 
Since the test sentences were not taken from a 
book, but presumably improvised for the occasion 
by the communicator, this avoided the preliminary 
difficulty of extracting ideas from a printed page. 
Nevertheless we find the usual problem of a message 
which can’ only be understood in its full signi- 
ficance by comparison with paragraphs to be found 
elsewhere. 

Mrs. T. sat in Paris with a friend who wrote 
automatically. Another friend was _ visiting 
Wimereux. Previous experiment had_ indicated 
a close touch between her two friends, revealing 
itself in knowledge of what was happening at some 
particular moment in each other’s vicinity. In 
one instance a message of some twenty-three words 
had been written by each lady at the same hour, 
and these were found to be identical when after- 
wards compared. ‘The automatist who wrote in 
Paris asserted that she was able clairvoyantly to 
see, in the form of lights, the spirit operators 
who were directing the experiment ; the chief of 
these signed himself Roudo/phe. 

On September 16th, 1913, the automatist sitting 
at Paris announces that one of these lights is coming 


242 


Appendix 


and going rapidly. She then writes three sentences 
which convey no meaning whatever to either Mrs, T. 
or to herself. They were:— 
* As well behaved as the pupils in a convent for 
well-trained young ladies.’ 
‘Their large sweet eyes are used to watching 
the passing.’ 
“The modern lady of fashion whose eyes.’ 
The following day there arrived by post a script 
written the previous evening by the automatist at 
Wimereux. After a short introduction, in which 
Roudolphe explains the idea of his experiment, it 
proceeds :— 


‘THE DEER IN THE BOIS.’ 


* Have you sometimes met, dear friend, as you 
walked in the thickets, the deer that live and 
roam through the leafy branches, at times... 
[here the automatist noted a pause in the writing] 
at times like a flock, jumping and frightened, so 
graceful and fascinating? Have you ever asked 
yourself what those pretty animals were thinking, 
and what they would become later? Far be it 
from me to draw their horoscope (which would 
after all be of no interest to them), but it seems to 
me that their mentality must be very different 
from that which animates the deer of the forest 

another pause] strange vehicles running 
without the aid of an animal’s legs, and in those 
carriages or along the more or less frequented paths, 
they have contemplated women with elongated 


243 


Appendix 


eyes like their own, delicate and stylish women. 
Who can ever tell us if . .. [another pause] 
become so unnaturally large under the dash of the 
pencil is not a doe of the forest in the throes of 
retrospective recollections? Dear friend, I have 
had some trouble because Miss R. tried to under- 
stand, but I trust I have succeeded with this childish 
little story. Affectionate good-night, Roudolphe.’ 

I now repeat this communication, inserting in 
italics the above disconnected sentences in the gaps 
represented by pauses. It will be found to make 
a complete and intelligible whole. — 

‘Have you sometimes met, dear friend, as you 
walked in ‘the thickets, the deer that live and 
circulate through the leafy branches, at times as 
well behaved as the pupils in a convent for well- 
trained young ladies, at times like a flock, jumping 
and frightened, so graceful and fascinating ? Have 
you ever asked yourself of what those pretty animals 
were thinking and what they would become later ? 
Far be it from me to draw their horoscope (which 
would after all be of no interest to them), but it 
seems to me that their mentality must be very 
different from that which animates the deer of the 
forest. Their large sweet eyes are used to watching 
the passing strange vehicles running without the 
aid of an animal’s legs, and in these carriages or 
along the more or less frequented paths, they have 
contemplated women with elongated eyes like their 
own, delicate and stylish women. Who can ever 
tell us if the modern lady of fashion, whose eyes 
become so unnaturally large under the dash of the 


244 


Appendix 


pencil, is not the doe of the forest in the throes 
of retrospective recollections ?’ 

In his comments upon this and preceding script 
Dr, Geley remarks that both mediums were ignorant 
of the meaning and intention of the sentences they 
were writing. “They both acted as machines 
worked by a single identical direction, and an 
independent intelligence.’ 

Examining the script for explanation of these 
phenomena, we find that the operating spirits 
claimed ability to travel rapidly to and fro between 
the automatists, influencing their writings alter- 
nately until the experiment was completed. This 
brings to mind the reply given to Stainton Moses 
when he remarked that his book test was written 
slowly and by fits and starts, ‘I wrote what I 
remembered, and then I went for more.’ 


The Earthen Vessel, by Lady Glenconner, pub- 
lished by John Lane, in 1921, contains numerous 
examples of book tests, also an Introduction by 
Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., upon the problem they 
present, and their apparent relation to the cross- 
correspondences and complex literary allusions 
which, for some years past, have engaged the atten- 
tion of the Society for Psychical Research. 


A Report upon the subject of Book Tests 
received by members of the Society for Psychical 
Research has recently been written by Mrs, H. 
Sidgwick (see Proc. S.P.R., Part LXXXI). 


245 


APPENDIX B 


TESTS FROM THE TITLES OF BOOKS 
Titles appear with Book Tests. 


Nine months after the first appearance of book 
tests there began to be mingled with them references 
to titles of books, one or more words in a title 
being made the subject of a test. Instances of 
this intermingling may be seen in the following 
communication, copied from notes of April 30th, 
1918, with verifications subjoined. It should be 
kept in mind that Mrs, Leonard has never visited 
our house. 


“In your study there are books between 
the window and the fireplace, and a sort of 
inequality divides the shelves part of the way 
up. They are a peculiar set of books, and 
not every one would read them. | can feel 
when books are of the popular sort, and those 
are not.’ 


I recognised this description as accurate in each 
detail. 


‘The fourth book from the left on the 
second shelf up is one that jumps about in 
time, skipping from one century to another.’ 


240 


Appendix 
The second page of that book, part of table of 


contents, refers nine times to different centuries 
or periods of French literature; and 190 pages, 
a substantial section of the volume, trace its history 
from earliest days to the present time. 


‘A word like “ Interology ” has to do with 
the subject of the book. The word “Inter y, 
is right, and the remainder of it might be 
summed up by the word ology,” 
although that is not the word used. This 
has to do with the whole book.’ 








It was a French Reader published by the ‘ Inter- 
national Correspondence Schools,’ which title appears 
in full upon the back. Thus the first part, ‘ Inter— 
was given with precision, while the second 
portion was aptly designated by the comprehensive 
term ‘—ology,’ covering the idea of teaching 
languages by means of text-books and corre- 
spondence. 


“A proper name commencing with “P” 
is prominent, and you will easily notice it.’ 


This is certainly the fact, for one hundred pages 
are devoted to Paris, and the name is repeated no 
less than fifteen times in the contents table, where, 
[ suppose, my communicator found it. 


* Within a span of the last book is one with 
title suggesting a subject over which much 
time is wasted. In the spirit world there is 


247 


Appendix 


no need to discuss it! Neither would there 
be on earth if people tried to realise it within 
themselves, instead of discussing it so much.’ 


Immediately above the preceding book stood 
the Paradiso of Dante. ‘This left me in doubt as 
to what had been meant by saying time was wasted 
in discussing it; consequently at the next inter- 
view I inquired, and was answered that time was 
wasted when people expressed uncertainty about 
the existence of Paradise and argued to disprove 
its reality, when, by simply realising the Divine 
within themselves, here and now, they might 
become assured of the Paradise awaiting them 
hereafter. This teaching I recognised as a familiar 
thought in my father’s sermons, an exposition of 
St. Paul’s belief that our experience of the Holy 
Spirit within is ‘an earnest of our inheritance,’ a 
personally satisfying assurance of the joys to come. 
(Hoh i114 ao vCore yar rete) 

John Wesley considered that it was an important 
part of his mission to give prominence to this 
doctrine. It has been strongly emphasised by the 
Wesleyan Church, and it is not a little interesting 
to find it thus reiterated by one who, after preaching 
it on earth, has proved its truth elsewhere. 


‘Continuing on that shelf, take the sixth 
book from the left, and on page 57 1s some- 
thing applicable to the present war. The 
passage is more than half-way down the page, 
say five-eighths, and fits the state of the war 
very well, a sort of statement, say a summing 
up.’ 

248 


Appendix 


This book was Dante’s Juferno, and such a title 
looked appropriate considering the then state of 
the warring world. Half-way down the designated 
page commences the passage:— 


‘ Crowds beneath the water there suspire, 
And make those bubbles on the top appear, 
Where’er thou turn’st thine eyes.’ 


I took these lines as intended by my communi- 
cator to be applicable to the ten thousand sailors 
who, by that date, had lost their lives at sea; a 
sort of summing up of naval casualties and losses 
of life in merchant ships, hospital ships, mine 
sweepers, and liners. But his actual meaning did 
not occur to me. Contrary to my usual custom, 
I read the passage at the next interview, and without 
making any comment inquired whether these were 
the lines intended ? The reply came instantly :— 


‘That is it. He thought it aptly applied 
to the submarines and the agitation they 
make beneath the water.’ 


This was a new idea to me, and for the moment 
I questioned its relevancy, saying that I had not 
thought of it in that connection, but supposed he 
had applied it to the numbers drowned, although 
I had deemed the word ‘suspire’ somewhat 
inapplicable. 


‘He did not know that the word was 
“suspire,”’ exclaimed Feda, ‘but he was 
E.H.S. 249 S 


Appendix 


sure that it was a word implying a manifesta- 
tion of life, in some way; it seemed to him to 
suggest anything like snorting or sneezing, 
some idea based upon the act of respiration, 
and he considered this an apt reference to the 
peculiar feature of this war, the U-boats.’} 


These remarks about the passage, made a fort- 
night after the test was verified, are interesting as 
revealing the independent point of view taken by 
the communicator, and the fact that I had not 
perceived the full relevancy of the passage until it 
was subsequently explained to me. It will be 
observed from the remark upon the word ‘ suspire,’ 
that the method used by the communicator at this 
period enabled him to extract the general sense 
without any certainty of discovering the actual 
word or words as they appeared in print. As to 
the relevancy of such reference to U-boats, one 
has but to notice the date on which it was made in 
order to realise its force. 

The next statement was about this same book:— 


“An important name commencing with 
“C” occurs much in it.’ 


The word CANTO in capital letters appears at 
the top of no fewer than 252 pages; so that this 
little test was verified. 

I was further told that:— 


* Either in the title or at the beginning of 


1 The dictionary definition of the word Suspire is ‘to fetch a 
deep breath, to sigh or breathe.’ 


250 


Appendix 


the book there is an important name com- 
mencing with “ A.”’ 


Turning to the preface Dante’s family name is 
seen in the fifth line from the beginning, ‘ Alighieri.’ 


‘Within a span of the last, and possibly 
the very next book, is a title giving in a word 
the present state of the war.’ 


The book standing next was Dante’s Purgatorio. 


“Remember that the span may be in any 
direction. Within that distance above the 
last is a title describing what your father hopes 
you may one day wear. It is not an ordinary 
article like a hat.’ 


When proceeding to verify this test I noticed 
that, as the Purgatorio was on the top shelf, a 
mistake had evidently been made in saying this title 
stood above it. As search along surrounding titles 
failed to reveal anything applicable, I wrote this down 
as failure, and said so at the next interview. Upon 
hearing this, Feda appeared to refer to the com- 
municator, and then said that a mistake had been 
made in describing the position; it was not above, 
but below the previous book. 


‘He is inclined to think that what he 
intended is contained in a sub-title or is on 
the flyleaf. Look inside the books just below.’ 


I returned home without much expectation of 
251 


Appendix 


success, but investigation six inches below the 
Purgatorio revealed half a dozen numbers of 
Bartholomew’s County Maps, which have upon 
their covers a trade-mark consisting of a globe 
surrounded by the publisher’s name and surmounted 
by a crown. Besides which, and still within the 
span distance, there were eleven numbers of a 
small instruction book having a similar sort of 
trade-mark embodied in the title and surmounted 
by a crown. ‘There were thus no fewer than seven- 
teen crowns within the stipulated distance. Such 
symbolic reference to a crown was entirely appro- 
priate to my father’s habit of expression in his 
earthly days. Observe the obvious clue given, 
‘not an ordinary article like a hat.’ 


‘Somewhat to the left of that is a title in 
which is mentioned something that should be 
avoided. You might resent any one suggesting 
that you need to avoid it. Remember it is 
only given by way of a test.’ 


A few inches to the left was a book by Anatole 
France with the word ‘Crime’ prominent in its 
title, Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard. At the next 
interview I inquired if it had been observed that 
this title was in French ? 


‘No, it would be all the same to him 
whatever language it was written in. You 
might try some day with a book in Chinese, 
Japanese, or any out-of-the-way language. 
Only be sure that it has first been read by 
some one who thoroughly understood it.’ 

252 


goto — a 
ey el a eee 


Appendix 


This indication of limitation suggests that, at 
this period, little reliance was placed upon clair- 
voyance, and that the ‘sensing’ of titles was 
accomplished by something akin to psychometry, a 
perception of thoughts which had been evoked in 
the minds of those who read them. 


Titles used as Tests—IlMustrations 
from many Sittings 


In giving further examples of title tests, it 
would be tedious to record with each the explicit 
directions given for finding the title required. The 
phrase most frequently used was, ‘ within a span,’ 
and the span was to be measured from some book, 
the position of which was exactly defined by 
reference to room, position of shelves, number of 
shelf, and number of book from right or left side 
as stated. Nothing was left to chance save the 
length of the span; my span is nine inches. The 
following examples, with the single exception of 
the first, were found within that distance from the 
books given as measuring centres. It must not be 
supposed that the hundreds of books on my shelves 
remained in their accustomed places during these 
experiments. They were purposely disarranged 
repeatedly, numbers being removed at random 
from one part of the room to another. The only 
difference noticeable was my difficulty in finding 
books required in the course of my usual studies. 
Their constant displacement inconvenienced me, 

293 


Appendix 


but apparently made no difference to the accuracy 
of my communicator in placing tests. 

The agreement between statements received and 
the presence of appropriate titles within the indicated 
spaces, can scarcely strike the reader with the same 
force I felt when first discovering it. As month 
followed month, and the experiment continued to 
be successful, the conviction became absolute that 
the intelligence giving these messages through Mrs. 
Leonard and her control had actually been in the 
study taking note of the position of my books. 
And this new proof was supplementary to a con- 
siderable body of evidence pointing in the same 
direction. 

The following is of interest for the comment 
attached :— 


* Within a span seems to bea title suggesting 
growth, and growth of the right kind too; in 
connection with this book you will remember 
B., a well-known man, who would heartily 
agree with the ideal expressed by the title 
and with the ideals of the whole book.’ 


The title on this occasion proved to be rather 
beyond the span, actually the distance was 124 
inches, and was Aggressive Christianity, by Mrs. 
Booth. That Christianity should grow in influence 
by aggressive activities was, as the whole world 
is aware, the firm conviction of the late General 
Booth, who, with the help of the authoress, his 
wife, founded the Salvation Army. 

Into the interesting question why initials rather 

254 


Appendix 


than names are usually given, I must not here 
enter. That the names are known is_ proved 
by adequate evidence, but the exact nature of 
the processes of communication must be studied 
before one can fully appreciate the reason why 
some facts can be given and others only obliquely 
indicated. 


‘Almost next the last mentioned, next or 
next but one, is a title expressing what all 
should avoid, not merely students of the 
occult, but all Christians also.’ 


Next but one to the above book was Agnosticism. 


“Above the fourteenth book, or nearly 
above it, there is a title which will remind 
you of your Uncle Alfred.’ 


Fearing that this was insufficiently definite, I 
inquired if it would remind me of his tastes or of 
his name? It was answered that the connection 
would strike me at once. Despite that assurance 
I was prepared for failure, as I had never yet been 
reminded of this uncle by anything on my shelves, 
excepting by two volumes he had given me in my 
student days and which were not likely to be in 
this part of the room. But when, on returning 
to my study, I looked with mild curiosity at the 
row of books immediately above the fourteenth, 
one of them by a double connection brought this 
uncle to my mind. It was a book written by his 
father, and on its back was the name which, saving 

255 


Appendix 


one initial, was identical with his. The uncle’s 
name was A. W. Thomas, and on the title appeared 
J. W. Thomas. This book stood perpendicularly 
above number 14. 

It had been a good year for fruit, and my father 
made some references to the produce of our garden 
and the preserve which he noticed was being made 
in our house. He did not say “ preserve’ however, 
but used the simpler term as he had invariably 
done when on earth. Among the tests given was 
the following, which was to be found within a 
span of a certain book we had been discussing :— 


* Something there reminds him of your jam.’ 


I found it difficult to believe that any book of 
mine could answer this description, whether by 
title, publisher, or author’s name. It seemed 
incredible. But inspection showed that, lying 
upon the top of the others, and but two inches 
away from the identical book which was to be my 
guide to it, there was a small volume with the 
simple title, Fames. I can confidently say that 
never previously had I noticed the suggestiveness 
of the first three letters of this common name. 


Two references were greetings for the season. 
‘Within a span is a title expressing his 
Christmas wish for you.’ 


The title was Hearts Ease. This was given 
250 


Appendix 


before Christmas; during the first sitting in 
January came another :— 


‘ Within a span is a title expressing a New 
Year’s wish to you in particular; he would 
like to include Clara (my wife’s name), but 
is afraid he must leave her out of this. You 
will see from the title what is meant; open on 
the name or sub-title, and it will give you 
the clue as to why he cannot include Clara 
in this.’ 


I found it impossible to conjecture any title 
which, as a New Year’s wish, would not be equally 
suitable for my wife as for myself. But my father 
constantly exhibits a mental ingenuity which sur- 
passes mine. Immediately beneath the book from 
which the span was to be measured, I found 
The Book of Enoch, edited by Professor Charles 
and exhibiting the motto of the Oxford University 
Press, Dominus Illuminatio Mea. No wish for the 
New Year could be more gratifying than this 
prayer for Divine enlightenment, while the fact 
of its being coupled with the name Charles gives 
an easy clue to the reason why it had been singled 
out as personal to me. My name is Charles. 
This prayer, together with the name Charles, is 
found both upon the back of the book and on its 
title-page. 


‘Within a span 1s a title taking one back 
a very long time, a thousand years or more.’ 


This was The Minor Prophets. 
257 


Appendix 


The following is an illustration of the way in 
which the communicator is able to puzzle me, 
even upon those rare occasions when I have a 
fair idea of the books likely to be found in the 
place from which he is selecting the test. 


“Coming now to the lower shelf next the 
door, there is a title close to the door suggesting 
Greek or Grecian.’ 


In this instance I was able to recollect that the 
books nearest the door upon the bottom shelf had 
been bought second-hand for purposes of reference. 
I had not yet used the books, and thought of them 
collectively as ‘Early Fathers of the Church.’ 
That they would relate to Greek was certain, but 
I anticipated some reference in the preface to 
Greek writings, or possibly a Greek quotation on 
the title-page. That there was nothing Greek or 
Grecian on the titles proper I felt fairly certain. 
What, then, was my astonishment to notice that 
the second from the door included in its title the 
name ‘ Athenagoras.” This is entirely Grecian 
in its suggestion, and the book states that Athena- 
goras was a philosopher of Athens. 


The next illustration similarly turns upon an 
author’s name. It was prefaced by the remark,— 


‘This is very interesting,’ and proceeded, 
“Close to the last book named, he saw one 
containing a name very closely connected 
with this medium. Strictly speaking, it is the 

258 


Appendix 


title, but he is uncertain whether he obtained 
the connection from the title or from the 
title-page.’ 


Exactly twelve inches from the book alluded to 
was one which had the following upon both back 
and title-page: With God in my Garden. Fifty-two 
talks to Children. Leonard E. Dowsett. While the 
name Leonard has more than one form of spelling, 
it is here identical with the medium’s. Had I 
been asked on my way to this sitting, and it was 
my twentieth, if the name Leonard appeared upon 
my shelves, I should have replied that, if it did so 
appear, I certainly had not noticed the fact. 


* Within a span is a title suggesting tarnished 
metal; he does not think it intended that, 
but it impressed him with that meaning.’ 


Exactly a span’s length distant was A. C. Benson’s 
book, The Thread of Gold. Gold thread will, in 
process of time, become tarnished. It is curious 
how in these tests a vague idea seems to have 
been caught by my communicator which, while 
almost always correct in a way, is often any- 
thing but obvious or what the majority of people 
would first think of on seeing such titles. Yet, 
even with us, the laws of mental association produce 
widely varying results, and will even do this with 
the same person at different times and under 
changed conditions. 


‘Within a span is a title which expresses 
259 


Appendix 


to him “ the eyes of youth,” or, as seen through 
eyes of youth; it gave him the idea very 
plainly. He thinks these words are not there, 
but the title is only as seen through the eyes 
of youth.’ 


Close by stood Sulley’s book, Children’s Ways. 


‘Within a span is a title expressing an 
adventure which would be very interesting 
to you, a course of conduct, a condition gone 
into, but by way of being an adventure. It 
would appeal to you, but you would have to 
be careful. He thinks and hopes you do not 
wish to go into it. There are reasons why it 
would not be advisable at present.’ 


The book was Dean Plumtre’s The Spirits in 
Prison, which deals with our Lord’s mission to the 
unhappy souls of the lower spirit realm. Those 
who have read the vivid narratives of the Rev. G. 
Vale Owen will have little difficulty in perceiving 
the relevance of this allusion. 


‘ Also within a span is a book with a word 
on the outside, but not in the title proper, 
signifying quite up to date. He thinks it is 
not in the title, yet is on the outside of the 


book.’ 


It was, 4 Harmony of the Gospels in the Revised 
Verston. 


‘Within a span is a title suggesting a 
teaching which is much turned and twisted 
to suit particular ideas by certain people, thus 
causing much misconception.’ 

200 


Appendix 


This was The Indwelling Spirit. Here we have 
one of the central facts of Christianity; in degree 
as it is experimentally understood and enjoyed 
we have illumination for the intellect, love for the 
heart, strength and guidance for the life. ‘Jf any 
man hath not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’— 
Rom. viii. 9. Had this teaching been consistently 
given the prominence it holds ‘in the New Testa- 
ment, the history of Christianity would have been 
spared its darker chapters. 


* About three books distant is a very striking 
title. It refers to that upon which we should 
fix our mental vision and always strive more 
quickly towards.’ 


Here, as not infrequently, my father seizes upon 
what serves his purpose and disregards the remainder. 
Sometimes he fixes upon an author’s name, some- 
times upon the full title, and at other times, as in 
this instance, upon a few special words. He leaves 
me to discover the exact turn of his thought, which 
there is rarely any difficulty in doing. Books which 
Influenced our Lord and His Apostles was the full 
title of the book standing shird from the above 
landmark. Knowing my father as I did, and 
understanding the aspirations of his inner life, it 
is easy to recognise the significance of his emphasis 
upon the two central words, and with the deeper 
reverence attained through these studies, which 
have opened for me new heavens as well as a new 
earth, I bow, as does my father, before this exalted 
name, ‘OUR LORD.’ 

261 











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